Fire and Ice
by Obsidian Fireheart
Summary: Sarutobi made a deal with the Shinigami in the beginning. Two gifted children were swapped. Hitsugaya Tōshirō will eventually cross paths with the Shinigami, Namikaze Naruto when the world needs them the most. After all, they are the chosen ones.
1. Ice Cream

"The Kyuubi no Kitsune would most definitely be a valuable asset for Seireitei in the future, but he could also be an asset for Konoha. Why do you want him?" Sarutobi Hiruzen stroked his chin as he leaned on the desk in front of him.

People would think that he had gone mad if they had walked in on him now. There wasn't a single person sitting on the two chairs in front of him, at least, to the normal human eye.

The Sandaime Hokage had never been a normal human. He was able to see ghosts from the day he was born, and now was no different. The two in front of him weren't the most normal looking of people, but then again, neither was he.

"It would make a great research subject." Spoke the man in front of him, Urahara Kisuke. The captain of the twelfth division wore the standard clothing, a white haori on top of a black robe. His hat was removed, perhaps out of courtesy of being in a foreign leader's presence. "Not only that, we would prevent the fox from escaping. We were, remember, the people who sealed it."

That was true. It was a good argument right there.

"What do I get out of this?" Hiruzen spoke quietly. He might have handed Naruto over then, he would certainly be a lot safer in Soul Society, but he was seeing if he could milk another bargain from this.

"There is a child from the Rukon district. He has a disproportionately large amount of reiatsu flowing through him. In this realm, that would be translated to chakra. He would be an excellent addition to your forces if trained right. He also has something within him."

"Hmm?" Hiruzen wondered.

"We have noticed that he has the soul of the ice dragon lord, Hyōrinmaru within him.

"Do not forget, Naruto is likely to be ostracized and mistreated in this world. For his burden, many would still hold grudges and such." Said the until now silent one. He had long flowing black hair held up by special hair pins signifying a high social class. He had the same outfit as Urahara plus a scarf that wound around his neck.

"I know, Byakuya-taichō. I'm just wondering… Would Minato approve of this decision?"

"Naruto would be safer. I don't think he wouldn't agree…"

Sarutobi thought a bit more, not returning his gaze to the two captains in front of him before speaking. "Fine. We have a deal."

**

* * *

Fire and Ice**

**Written by EternalFrost**

**Chapter 1 – Ice Cream**

* * *

Hitsugaya Tōshirō happily licked away at his ice cream. It was mint flavored with chocolate chips spread abundantly atop it.

"Mmmm!" He said lovingly. "Good as ever."

The two ice cream shop's owners smiled as they watched their number one customer eat the frozen food with glee. The white-haired boy visited their humble place often, always to enjoy another cold treat from the duo.

The place was called Ichiraku's. It was originally going to be a ramen stand, but when Tōshirō stumbled upon their secret ice cream recipe, they knew that they were going to have a lot more happy customers with Ayame's world coveted ice cream making secrets.

His smile lit up their world. They cared about this boy a lot. It wasn't often he smiled. Ice cream happened to be a guilty pleasure of his, and he enjoyed the Ichiraku recipe so much that he couldn't help but let a smile out. Admittedly, it wasn't a full blown grin, but if the uplifting of his cheeks was anything to indicate, he was certainly smiling a little.

His hair spiked up oddly, it rose to the top and pointed a little outward, but right at the bottom, it fell just naturally. He wasn't very tall, being the shortest in the entire class save for Hinata.

He wore a tight, sleeveless black shirt and a pair of baggy pants of the same color. Atop those, he wore a long white haori. It was slightly too big for him, it fell to his heels. It had a ton of inside pockets and was laced with armor seals, however, so it was more than useful. He wore a green sword strap around his torso, holding a rather large okatana that was the length of his body. Ayame knew he was more than proficient in the arts of the sword, if his arms' conditioning meant anything. His feet were adorned with sandals that had grips at the bottom, just in case.

Aside from his exterior, he was a cold lad. The years of living alone had done a number on his social persona, and he found himself speaking to less and less every day. His voice was always quiet, he never bothered to draw conversations out, and he tended to avoid crowds like the plague. He never went to a party before, and always sat alone when he ate lunch. In many ways, he was reminded of his classmate, Sasuke Uchiha.

He didn't like the thought, but his insightful mind connected the dots quickly enough. They were both high scoring students at the ninja academy, they both remained quiet and reserved; preferring to sort through their own thoughts than hear everyone else's, and worst of all, they were both all alone.

Alone.

He never really cared about the lack of company that he had. He preferred to be alone. He had lived with it all his life, why not add another day? That was his mindset, and everyone knew it. Tōshirō wasn't very trusting, either. The last time he trusted was the incident with the four drunks that he would rather forget.

He finished the last of his snack before placing the empty cup and the money that he owed the Ichiraku pair on the bar. He left as silent as he came, Ayame almost missed his leaving.

"Thanks for coming, Shiro-chan!" She called out. Tōshirō turned his head and faced her, smiling a little back at her.

"Thank you, Ayame-chan."

Then he headed back home. It was Sunday. He would be going to the Academy tomorrow. He needed some sleep.

After all, sleep was essential for growth, and this was no different.

* * *

Tōshirō frowned as the people among his class spoke away amongst themselves. They were incredibly noisy, and it was getting difficult for him to read. His eyebrow twitched violently, but he didn't do anything. Then he realized where he was sitting.

Perhaps Sasuke had sat next to him for protection. With rabid dogs like those girls after him, Tōshirō wouldn't be surprised. As he heard the two mistresses of his fangirl pack barge through the door, he knew he would have to do something.

Sakura Haruno, also known as the banshee, had pink hair. Her bangs were parted, showing Tōshirō her, in his opinion, massive forehead. Ino Yamanaka was her rival. She looked good, but that meant nothing in the ninja world. She would have to realize that sooner or later.

As they shot towards him, intent on removing him from his seat, they both lifted an arm to punch him. That was when Tōshirō was behind them, sword in hand.

"Please, Sakura… Ino… Don't interrupt my reading. I'm at a good part. Go sit somewhere else, please." Tōshirō muttered.

They frowned before going to different seats. Perhaps this was why Sasuke always sat next to the white-haired boy. Instant lady removal.

The class was still being as boisterous as ever, so when Iruka walked into the room and went to grab his class' attention, he was blatantly ignored. Tōshirō was paying attention, but he was close enough to being the only one.

"CLASS!" Iruka roared with his head swelling to massive proportions. "PAY ATTENTION!"

No one spoke.

"Good. Now, today we are going to begin reviewing for the final Genin Exams." He spoke. "We'll go over the transformation jutsu first. Come up here when I call your name…"

And that was how it went for the next few weeks.

* * *

"CLASS!" Iruka yelled with his usual routine. "PAY ATTENTION!"

He cleared his throat before continuing. "It is time for the Genin exams. Please follow me outside as Mizuki and I shall grade you on your practicals."

They all obliged following the teacher out. When Sasuke was up for shuriken throwing, all of his fan club was sure that he could do it. He did very well, getting a nine out of ten average. His kunai test was similar. As was his jutsu test. And his obstacle course.

Tōshirō didn't change his facial expression as he tossed his kunai at the target. Not all of them were dead center, but he had gotten a ten out of ten average. In other words, perfect.

Sparring was easy for them. They were pitted against Mizuki, who watched as Sasuke walked up to him with a confident smirk on his face. The chuunin attacked first, drawing a kunai and slashing it at the Uchiha. He expertly avoided it, grappling his opponent's hand and kicking him. It was rather one-sided, Sasuke beat him easily. Even if the teacher was going easy, it was still very impressive.

Tōshirō's fight was similar to that. Mizuki opened up with his kunai charge, but the white-haired boy drew his sword and parried the attack, catching the weapon then delivering a sharp kick to his teacher's side.

The thing that the boy was proud of was that he felt he was a rather generalized person. Although his Ninjutsu and Genjutsu skills were a little down, he more than made up for that with his Taijutsu, Kenjutsu, and his overall speed. His Taijutsu revolved around kicks, mostly, since he would be holding a sword with his hands, they would be occupied. He knew some punches, just in case. His Kenjutsu was his real pride and joy; he was top of the class every year in that subject. With his sword, he could beat many other opponents.

Tōshirō slashed at Mizuki, who sidestepped and threw three kunai at his student. The boy dodged and threw a few shuriken before charging at his teacher and throwing some well placed slashes. Mizuki dodged back and tossed more kunai, only for them to be swiped out of the sky.

"Is that all you can do?" Tōshirō taunted, his inflection not changing a bit.

"Not at all." Mizuki growled back, placing his hands into a seal. He cast a light Genjutsu and smiled as he saw the ice-using boy swear under his breath. He knew that Tōshirō sucked at Genjutsu, so it was an easy matter to get him with it. Tōshirō dispelled it with some effort, but he was already put in a compromising position by Mizuki. "Forfeit."

Tōshirō growled, but raised a hand in resignation. "I'm done."

Iruka began to clap. The white-haired boy smiled as he saw some others smile also. "Great job, Tōshirō. You did great."

Tōshirō walked back to the crowd, not facing the scarred teacher. "Thanks, Iruka-sensei."

He stood by Shino, who nodded slightly, approving his choice of words. "That was a well played match, Hitsugaya-san."

The other shrugged. "It was okay. Everyone expects me just to use my sword. I have to generalize as much as I can to prove them wrong."

The bug user adjusted his glasses. "Logical. It's regrettable that I can't do the same. Because of my kikai, Ninjutsu and Genjutsu are not an option. The only remaining study I can practice is Taijutsu as a result."

Tōshirō shrugged. "Take up Kenjutsu."

"Hmm…" Shino seemed in thought. "I shall consider that."

* * *

"Is Sasuke-kun at the top of the class?"

"Lemme see!"

"Ugh! Move!"

Tōshirō stared at the grades for the Genin exam, appalled. He wore his head band around his left bicep, so he knew that he passed. Everyone was silent as they read the list.

Number 3 – Hyuuga Hinata

Number 2 – Uchiha Sasuke

Number 1 – Hitsugaya Tōshirō

Sasuke only glared at Tōshirō even more.

* * *

The white-haired boy later could be found walking home, reading his book. The sun was just going down, but he didn't care. It was still light enough to read.

He passed a lamppost before stopping at a park. He didn't have to show up at school again for a couple of weeks to allow administration to sort the teams out. He could stay up late tonight. He sat down, producing a sketchpad from somewhere in his haori. Withdrawing the pencil in the spiral binding, he began to draw. There was a bird sitting there. That was the object of his art today.

He had been embarrassed when Ayame commented on his art. He still remembered the day.

_Tōshirō had visited the ice cream stand after a long day of training. He had dropped his sketchpad onto the street. Ayame, who was passing by, picked it up. She was curious as to what was inside, so she opened it to see a, in her opinion, beautiful drawing of a sleeping deer._

"_It's gorgeous." She spoke in awe. When the smaller boy noticed that his book had been nicked, he blushed hotly at the compliment before snatching the book back. "Is someone self-conscious of their art?" She teased. "Don't worry. I think it's great!"_

_The boy hadn't spoken a word back. He just looked away, still blushing._

Tōshirō had taken to showing the ice cream girl every one of his drawings now. She complimented every one, enjoying the reaction on the little artist's face.

After he was finished, he began to train.

His physical capabilities weren't perfect. That much he knew. He needed more speed. Much more. He needed to make the standard Jounin ability known as Shunshin look slow. He focused chakra all over his muscles, forcing them to move as fast as they could without limit. It didn't work.

After about ten minutes of working, he had an idea. Ice was slippery. Perhaps he could simulate the ability of ice with just chakra. He performed that, and went face first into a tree thirty yards away in less than a millisecond.

He never knew that he had discovered the shunpo, chakra style. Coincidentally enough, he called the ability the same name.

Shunpo.

* * *

Over the course of two weeks, his reaction time had greatly improved. Using the shunpo, he managed to get his arm swing speed to more than double. It had made him extremely happy. However. It seemed that he had hit a plateau in his speed.

He practiced his sword maneuvers, hoping to eventually raise his speed higher. Sadly, he hadn't felt that he was going any faster at all. He cursed to himself, realizing that he would have to change his training method in order to raise his speed more.

He saw a shadow from the corner of his eye, and turned to greet it. "Hello!" After seeing who it was, his mouth turned to a slight frown. "Uchiha Sasuke."

Sasuke made no movement save for approaching the other boy. He looked him in the eyes and spoke sternly. "Fight me."

Tōshirō smiled. "What if I say no?"

"I don't care. Fight me now."

"I'm busy training. Come again later."

"Fight me now!" Sasuke roared, flipping through handseals. "Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu!"

As the large fireball sailed toward Tōshirō, he realized he couldn't counter the attack with his blade. He instead leapt upward, over the attack, and tossed several shuriken toward his opponent. "Stop this."

Sasuke ignored his warning, dodging the thrown projectiles. He charged the other student and threw a punch, which the white-haired boy dodged easily. Seeing an opening, the Uchiha kicked at Tōshirō's feet. However, before his attack could land, Tōshirō jumped up and kicked his adversary in the face.

Sasuke growled and sent another fireball at Tōshirō. He dodged to the side. "I'm fed up of this." Tōshirō spoke. "Time to end it."

"Try me." Sasuke taunted arrogantly.

The other used shunpo and appeared behind Sasuke. As the Uchiha found himself with a blade to his throat, he was amazed. _"So fast…"_

"Now that that's done with…" Tōshirō spoke quietly. "Please go away."

Sasuke frowned, but complied.

The ice user thought wryly. _"It was luck that got me behind him. I need to work on my balance with the shunpo…"_

* * *

"Sasuke-kun! What happened to you?"

I had to restrain a chuckle when the Uchiha walked into the classroom, decorated with various bruises and bumps from last night.

"I fell."

Now that was a shoddy excuse, Tōshirō thought. It didn't concern him though, so he looked back away and at Iruka, who had just succeeded on getting his class' attention.

"Okay class, it's time to put you on teams. Now it was great to have the honor of teaching you all."

Tōshirō zoned out slightly, ignoring his teacher's speech on how they would become great ninja of Konoha and such.

"…And so, I will now announce the teams. Number one…"

The class waited in apprehension for their teams.

"…Number seven. Haruno Sakura, Inuzuka Kiba, and Uchiha Sasuke."

Sakura stood up and cheered while the rest of the girls frowned. Tōshirō sent an apologetic glance at Kiba, who either ignored him or didn't notice.

"…Number eight. Yamanaka Ino, Akimichi Chōji, and Hyuuga Hinata."

Hinata frowned. _"I'm not with Tōshirō-kun…"_

Ino stood up and began screaming. "ARGH! Why does Forehead girl get to be with Sasuke-kun while I get stuck with FOOD BOY?"

Iruka waved his arms in pacification. "Now, now, the Hokage decided the teams, not me. Speak to him if you need to get a change. Now, since number nine is still in active duty, we will skip to ten. Hitsugaya Tōshirō, Nara Shikamaru, and Aburame Shino."

Tōshirō smiled. He could have gotten a worse team. When the teams were done being announced, he watched as a gruff looking man with a beard came in. he wore a sash around his waist with the emblem for fire on it. He had a cigarette between his lips, but it was unlit.

"My name is Sarutobi Asuma. Team ten, please come with me."

And so Tōshirō, Shino, and Shikamaru followed.

* * *

Asuma looked at his team with mixed feelings. They all were quiet in their own ways. Being the first to start a conversation, he sat on a bench opposite from the one that the other three sat on.

"How about we get to know each other? Tell me your likes, dislikes, perhaps a dream or ambition of sorts. And maybe some hobbies or a favorite food? Also tell me what your abilities are and some weaknesses we could work on."

Shino twitched. "It would be logical for you to go first, Asuma-sensei. One needs to know the enemy's abilities and weaknesses just in case."

"I'm Sarutobi Asuma, son of the Third Hokage. I like relaxing, serving my country, and my smokes. I dislike people who vouch that smoking is bad and I don't like troublesome women. I dream to become a ninja of higher caliber and fame than Hatake Kakashi and my favorite food is barbeque pork. I specialize in using elemental chakra to form wind blades with my trench knives that can cut through just about anything. I think that my wind element can be easily exploited, however, and I could get hit by fire real bad."

The other three nodded, but no one spoke. Asuma frowned. "Quiet bunch, aren't you? How about you go next?"

Shikamaru, seeing that he was being pointed at, sighed. "Troublesome. I'm Nara Shikamaru. I like watching clouds, and sleeping. I dislike, like sensei, troublesome women and people who feel the need to move all the time. I dream of becoming a mid level ninja, marry someone who isn't too beautiful but not ugly either, and have two kids and retire early. A hobby of mine is playing Shougi. In battle, I prefer to use my shadow manipulation to capture and immobilize opponents. My weakness, I suppose, is that I know almost no offensive techniques well enough to be good in combat."

"Okay." Asuma nodded. "Your turn, Albino."

Tōshirō twitched it the nickname, but made no fuss. "My name is Hitsugaya Tōshirō. I like swords, Shougi, and ice cream. I dislike those who ignore training over fawning over one boy, that one boy, and hot weather. My dream for the future is to discover who my parents are or were and to make them proud by becoming a great ninja. I like to read, write, and draw in my free time. I like to generalize more than anything. I use Taijutsu and Kenjutsu to help me win battles. My weakness, I suppose, is countering Genjutsu. I suck at that."

Asuma smiled. "Okay. Good, good, good. Now you, the last one."

"My name is Aburame Shino." He began. "I like peace and quiet, and dislike loud noises. I strive to become an appreciable asset for my clan and this village. A hobby of mine is researching and collecting new insect species. I specialize in my clan jutsu, the kikai, which allows me to have the aid of my insect colony in battle to do various things, such as immobilize opponents and steal chakra. My weakness is my inability to perform Ninjutsu or Genjutsu."

"A man of few words, eh? I like that." Asuma grinned. "Well, we'll take a test tomorrow, because I am required to do that. Meet me here, training ground ten, at seven o'clock. Until then, Ja ne."

Tōshirō walked away in the opposite direction of the others. He had something to do.

* * *

"Hey, Shiro-chan! How can I help you?" Ayame spoke cheerfully. Tōshirō showed up to the ice cream parlor with a smile across his face. A good sign.

"I'll just have a vanilla today." He spoke. Yes, ice cream was his favorite food, but he did more than enough training to counteract the fattening effects of the sugary treat.

"Coming right up." As she was making the ice cream, she couldn't help but notice the look in his eyes. He looked somewhat nervous. Was he scared of something? "What's the matter, Shiro-chan?"

"Uh… I'm kind of nervous… Ayame-chan." He fiddled with his thumbs, a nervous reaction, she presumed.

"Nervous of what?" She turned around with a bowl of vanilla ice cream in her hand, ready to be eaten.

"About my ninja duties. I don't know if I'll be good enough… I'll fail my team, or get killed… or something else stupid like that."

The ice cream girl smiled sweetly. "Don't sweat it, Shiro-chan! I heard you finished at the top of your class in the Academy. I'm sure you'll do great! Don't fuss over the enemies you'll see in the future. You'll just pound them into dust. Don't worry about a thing!"

He smiled before licking his ice cream. "Thanks… Ayame-chan."

* * *

As Tōshirō laid down on his bed, he pondered the events of the day.

Sasuke seemed jealous of his skill. Why was that? Did all Uchiha have a superiority complex like that?

The only noise he heard was the ever present ticking from the clock beside him. It used to drive him up the wall, but now he could live with it. But as he tried to sleep, he couldn't help but be nervous for the survival exam that Asuma was going to give him.

What would it be? And if he had to fight Asuma, could he do it? So many questions floated around in his head, pointing and sneering at the lonely part of him that lay beneath the steeled exterior that he showed to everyone else.

So the clock continued to tick, and Tōshirō fell into the limbo between sleep and awareness, being eternally stuck to lay awake the entire night.

* * *

Sarutobi Hiruzen knew that nothing good would come of the rivalry between Tōshirō and Sasuke. That was why he had them split up.

Well, the wizened old man corrected himself, it wasn't a rivalry, more like one person hating another while the other doesn't care.

Sasuke was a problematic child, that much he knew. It would have been in his best interests to remove the boy from the forces for his mental instability. He didn't dare propose that to the council, however. Although Sasuke clearly was dangerous, that collection of fools all kissed the floor he stood upon, not caring whatever path the boy would take in life. If he was to present that idea to the other political body of Konoha, he was bound to have lost.

He cursed his own foolishness at letting the council of elders gain so much power. They had the right to veto the Hokage's decision with a two thirds majority vote, but everyone on the council thought on the same path. It made him want to pull his hair out!

The Hokage feared that if he didn't intervene somehow, the wayward Uchiha would end up like another Orochimaru: A power hungry fool hell bent on revenge.

He leaned back in his chair. Something had to be done. Perhaps it was time to take all of the stops. He pressed the button on his desk.

"Takana. Get me Hatake Kakashi. Tell him he cannot be late."

* * *

The strange man known as Hatake Kakashi was currently walking down the somewhat eerie streets of the complex belonging to the late Uchiha clan.

He had a grim look on his face. He didn't want to plant a seal on one of his students, but that's what the Hokage ordered.

"_I don't want another Orochimaru on our hands." He said. "You've seen how he acts. He is bent on getting revenge. He will stop at nothing to obtain power, and I fear that Orochimaru or some other evildoer will seduce him to his clutches."_

"_I understand totally, Hokage-sama." Kakashi stated, picking up the items in front of him. "I will do this mission as you have requested."_

"_Perfect. Now, the first scroll contains a seal that is to go on Sasuke. The second is to be placed on two people. You and Hitsugaya Tōshirō."_

"_Tōshirō? May I ask why?"_

_The Hokage took a puff from his pipe, frowning wearily. "I fear that he will be the only one to be able to defeat Sasuke if it comes to that."_

Kakashi was still puzzled with the Hokage's reasoning. Why Tōshirō and not just him? Surely he could beat Sasuke, right? There was something that he wasn't being told.

Nonetheless, as he crept into the foyer of the head Uchiha's house, he knew that he had to carry out orders just as the Hokage had given them. Nothing more, nothing less. The standard ninja motto when it came to orders from higher-ups.

He had already visited Tōshirō, he felt bad for infringing the boy's privacy like so, but the Hokage had made it explicitly clear that neither boy was to know of this op.

_Kakashi closed the window behind him quietly, making not a sound as he expertly stalked along the expanse of the room like a trained assassin. He smiled wryly: how easy it would be for an assassin to come in here and leave with the young boy's head._

_Shaking his thoughts away, he lifted the covers of Tōshirō's bed, raising his undershirt so as to see his pale skin beneath. With the precision of a surgeon, he copied down the ink grafts that were present on the scroll. It was a seal made by his sensei; it shouldn't fail._

_The boy twitched when brush met skin, but otherwise made no movement. Kakashi grinned inwardly at how easy this job was. He pressed chakra into the matrix, watching it disappear._

_So he finished the seal, and left as quickly as he came. No one was any the wiser, or so he hoped._

The scarecrow ninja walked up the wall, entering through the window of the Uchiha's room, executing his job just like how he had accomplished Tōshirō's

* * *

It was morning, and as the semi-albino boy showered, he had looked for a pattern of ink on him. He found nothing, no matter how many angles he looked from, nor how many mirrors he looked in.

What the hell?

He remembered the feeling of the ink brush against his skin. He knew that a seal was being applied to him last night. Only, he didn't know just what it was or what it was supposed to do.

He hadn't been able to sleep a wink for the entire night, so when he heard the window open, he debated on going to close it, but decided he couldn't be bothered. As he felt the covers removed, he knew something was wrong, but he played it by ear, just so that he could see what their intent was. If it was an assassin, they would be dead before they could blink.

Instead of a blade on him, however, he felt an ink brush. When it began to move in various patterns, he knew that it wasn't just some lost artist looking for a canvas that happened to tour his room. Some sort of seal was being placed on him, and for the life of him, he wanted to know just what it was.

As he figured that he would get nowhere just by looking for it, he continued setting himself up for the day, mentally preparing himself for Asuma's test.

* * *

Training ground ten was currently filled with an atmosphere of nervousness. Even if none of the students knew it, Asuma did, and that was a bonus for him. Nervousness would screw them up.

"Okay, team ten. It's time for a survival exam. Now, I didn't mention this before, but this is actually the secondary Genin exam." He grinned. "But don't worry. It's not that bad. Statistics say that sixty-six percent of people who take this test… fail."

He played on his students' nervousness, pleased with the results so far.

"Now, the test is different for every Jounin. What we're going to do is play a game of tag. Basically, I'm it, and if I tag you, you fail. I'll give you a five second head start… Go."

And all three Genin were gone into the bushes. Asuma obediently waited for five seconds before wondering where his students went.

"Hmm…"

* * *

"We need a plan to keep Asuma-sensei away." Shikamaru spoke. Tōshirō and Shino were beside him, both hidden.

"Hmm… We need to stop him somehow." The ice user muttered. "I can't freeze him. What can you guys do?"

"I can perform my Shadow Imitation Jutsu." The pineapple haired boy volunteered. "But I can only hold it for so long, and I bet that sensei will try to break out of it with force… How troublesome."

"If it is possible to immobilize him with that technique long enough…" Shino mused out loud. "Then my allies will be able to relieve him of his chakra."

"We can try that," Tōshirō frowned. "But he will still be able to run and jump."

"Shikamaru-san. Perhaps we can tie him to one of the training posts provided in this field if you keep him there with your technique." Shino ventured.

"He surely knows how to untie himself, Shino."

"Maybe." Tōshirō smiled. "But… If we tie him, we could catch the knot with something… Lock it in place, if you will. He won't be able to untie it then.

"It sounds logical. How shall we go about this then?" Shino asked.

"I have a plan."

* * *

"Where are those blasted children?"

Asuma strolled down a path in the forest, seeing if he could locate the missing students of his. It had been ten minutes, and he had only began to find the beginnings of their trail.

Good, good, good. They were together. That meant teamwork.

He felt a flare of Shikamaru's chakra. He thought for a second that the shadow user might have been baiting him, but the Jounin smiled. If they were, he would just have to humor them.

He dashed in the direction he picked up Shikamaru's chakra and soon met up with him in a forest clearing. No one was there but those two.

"Where are the others?" Asuma asked.

"They're off on their own." Shikamaru said. "It's such a drag, but they said I had to do it by myself."

"Oh really?" The smoking Jounin grinned and leapt skyward, avoiding the shadow that came to get him from behind. Shikamaru only smirked. A net appeared behind Asuma from the forest shadows and wrapped around him, the four kunai at the corners sticking to the ground.

Asuma only smiled. "I can get out of this. Your Shadow Bind can't last forever."

"I know." Shikamaru sighed. Shino appeared behind the net and his arm twitched. All of a sudden the wires that were around Asuma, those which he didn't see, constricted around him, forcing his arms to the sides and rendering unable to make hand seals, thus making sure he couldn't perform jutsu.

Then, to make sure Asuma didn't worm his way out, a pair of trees fell forward and landed on the sides of the net, cleanly sliced from their stumps courtesy of Tōshirō's blade.

"You're done." Hitsugaya calmly stated.

"I guess." Asuma smirked. "Alright. You pass. All of ya."

* * *

Hitsugaya Tōshirō was livid. He rubbed the scars that had formed all over his face. Never again would he catch that god-forsaken cat or he would slice it to bits!

The other two felt the same, but weren't as passionate as the somewhat-albino boy.

"Sarutobi-sama. I'm sorry, but I will not do another D-rank mission."

The Hokage looked at Tōshirō somewhat shocked. He regained his composure an instant later, though, leaving no one the wiser.

"Tōshirō!" Iruka roared from his place beside the Hokage. "Respect the Hokage! If he assigns a D-rank mission…" He was cut off when Sarutobi waved his hand.

"Then you shall do a C-rank if it satisfies you." The Hokage handed a mission scroll to Asuma, who took it with surprise.

"You give in so easily, Jii-san?" Asuma asked with wonder.

"I believe your team deserves it, Asuma." The Hokage wasted no time. "Bring him in."

The door opened as an assistant showed the client in. The client said was a drunken old man, with bags under his eyes and a bottle of sake in his hand.

"Despite being illogical." Shino buzzed. "I had expected a client more… extravagant than the one here."

"What's with these brats?" The old man asked. "I didn't pay good money for a bunch of snot-nosed little kids. Especially that little albino kid. Is he even a ninja?"

"I would shut up right now." Tōshirō warned, a tick mark appearing on his forehead. "You don't even know what you are getting into."

"Hmph. You had better at least protect me on the way to Wave."

* * *

End Chapter 1


	2. Hyōrinmaru

Namikaze Naruto swung his wooden swords constantly, trying to land a hit on the bald man one more time. Sparring in the eleventh division couldn't really be called sparring by any of the other divisions; it was violent and usually involved multiple broken bones at the end of each go.

But that was how the eleventh division liked it. Naruto was no different.

His wild, ruthless, and untamed blonde hair had red streaks strewn through it, and was grown long and tied into a ponytail. He wasn't very tall, four feet and eight inches was not what he would call intimidating, but he was convinced that he would grow taller soon. An interesting fact about the boy was that he had a rather large amount of muscle due to the environment of the squad, and the fox that lived inside him. However, the Kyuubi condensed all of that muscle into a very tight space, giving him a lean look, making it so that the bulk would not get in the way. The problem was: it made the blonde disproportionately heavy. Almost as heavy as his current opponent, in fact.

"Hah!" The blonde kid attacked Madarame Ikkaku's blade with a heated passion, pushing the bald man back with the force of his blow, but the shiny-headed third seat would not give up.

Being a fourth seat was okay, Naruto decided. However, if he wanted to be anything, he really wanted to be the Captain Commander of all of Seireitei. Now that would be awesome, he thought to himself.

Ikkaku blocked the blonde's next strike easily, sweeping his free scabbard underneath Naruto. Said whiskered child leapt upward and sliced his left practice sword furiously at Ikkaku. The bald man dodged and caught Naruto's extended blade with his scabbard, and used his blade to trip the much smaller Shinigami to the ground. He then stood on the boy's stomach fiercely and grinned wolfishly.

"Looks like I win again, Naruto-_chan_." Ikkaku teased.

"Argh! Just you wait, Ikkaku-teme! I'll replace you as third seat! Then I'll become captain of the whole squad! I became fourth seat much younger than you did, don't forget."

Ikkaku scowled. "The only reason why you are a fourth seater is 'cause Yumichika thinks that five is more beautiful than four!" He retrieved his sword, Houzukimaru, and placed it at its normal location beside his hip.

"Screw you!" The blonde yelled as he went to retrieve his two blades, collectively known as Kyuubi no Kitsune. They were rather large okatana, due to his abnormally large spiritual pressure. They were both obsidian black in color, and ran the length of his entire body. Their hilts were wrapped in black and red cloth for decoration and grip, and the guards were shaped like little silver fox heads. (Ikkaku calls them cats.) He placed them into their scabbards, which were decorated with black flames on a red background, and placed those onto a special grip attached to the back of his black uniform.

"Teehee!" A much younger, girly voice rang from behind them. "Looks like pinball-head is the winner again, Sunny-chan!"

Naruto pouted at the approaching figure of Kusajishi Yachiru. "Aww... Yachiru-chan…? Why do you always take his side?"

"'Cause it's fun!"

"Hmph."

**

* * *

Fire and Ice**

**Written by Obsidian Fireheart**

**Chapter 2 – Hyōrinmaru**

* * *

"Hollows in this place called the Elemental Countries?" Naruto asked, boggled. "What _are_ the Elemental Countries, exactly?"

Shigekuni Yamamoto-Genryuusai leaned forward on his cane while the top five members of the eleventh squad eyed him with confusion. He made no twitch, no movement that would even _suggest_ the answer to the confounded warmongers.

"Well?" Kenpachi demanded, speaking up. He easily dwarfed the rest of his subordinates and his boss. His hand gripped his sword with anticipation; perhaps the Hollows there would prove to actually be a fight.

"The Elemental Countries…" Yamamoto began, "Are a continent that is stuck in a separate pocket dimension from Earth, actually since it was formed. It is unknown why, but since people there have been long isolated from Earth, their culture and mannerisms are rather different.

"Similar to reiatsu here and in Earth, they run on an energy called chakra. It is fundamentally similar to reiatsu, but with its differences. They perform spells similar to our Kidou called jutsu using chakra. Those that can do this, and many others, are called ninja. They serve as the military force and the primary occupation for the Elemental Countries."

"Sounds interesting." Ikkaku mumbled, "But how do we bring our gigai into the Countries, exactly?"

"I believe…" The Head-Captain spoke, "That Urahara Kisuke is making preparations…"

"Contacting hat n' clogs after such a long time?" Kenpachi rumbled.

"Unfortunately so. He is not ready yet, however, and will not be ready for a while. Thus, you are to stay in your spiritual forms until then. One more thing. Since the people there are used to the effects of massive chakra output, there are used to reiatsu output as well, so the limiters, in the case of Kenpachi and Yachiru, will not be used. A senkaimon can be used to access the Elemental Countries and leave in the same manner as with Earth…" He paused for a moment, "Now, if you have any questions, speak now."

No one objected. "Good." The old man tapped his cane stiffly on the ground. "For security reasons, the other divisions don't know of this right now. Please keep it that way." He eyed especially Yachiru, the vice president of the International Shinigami Gossip Association, as he said this.

* * *

"What the hell are these things?" Tōshirō wondered to himself. He looked around at the various… _monsters_… that were congregating around him.

"Oh well… Time to slice these things up."

Truth was that, Tōshirō was skilled with the blade mainly because he had a lot of practice. He was the only one to seem to notice these creatures, and they liked to harm civilians, so he took a practice of killing each one he saw.

People often questioned why he brought his weapons with him all of the time. If they could see these things too, they would know why.

He sliced the last one's mask making it disperse into black debris. After sheathing his blade, he resumed his pace towards the front gate of Konoha in order to meet the rest of his team for departure.

What were those creatures? He wondered again. And what did they want with Konoha?

* * *

It was his first mission outside of the village walls, but that didn't mean he had to automatically enjoy this mission, right?

In fact, he downright hated it.

"Will this drunkard shut up?" Hitsugaya Tōshirō mumbled to no one in particular. His words, however, were caught by the keen ears of one Nara Shikamaru.

"Troublesome man, isn't he?" The deer boy replied, staring up into the sky as he walked.

"No kidding…"

It was then that Tōshirō spotted a puddle on the ground. It wasn't anything amazing, just an ordinary puddle on ordinary ground.

But the white-haired boy was wiser than that.

He chose to ignore it, motioning toward his sensei to see if the bearded, cigarette smoking man had caught it. Nodding his affirmation, in a way so subtle that it could barely be considered a twitch, the prodigy of the sword continued forward.

As they passed the puddle, a ripple extended from the watery surface and gripped Tōshirō's boot. But, the Swordsmaster was too smart for the puddle person and he sliced downward with his okatana, almost slicing the attacker's hand off had he not withdrawn it in surprise.

They passed the puddle, and the two enemies fully emerged from their hiding spot. They were from the Kiri. Missing-nin? Their forehead protectors were odd. They bore the Mist village logo, but one had a single horn protruding from the center while the other had two from the ends. They both wore claw like gauntlets that had a chain linking the two brothers together.

"The demon brothers." Asuma spoke, not looking anywhere else but at them. "Chuunin of Kiri. What are you doing here?"

"That's for me to know and you to find out!" The one with two horns yelled back.

"Nice sword kid." The one with a single horn spoke. "Almost got my arm there."

"Thanks…" Tōshirō muttered, looking up at the pair with annoyed eyes.

"No prob, kid! Time to die now!" The double-horned one dashed forward and attacked the group. Asuma appeared in front of him and blocked the poison tipped claw with a trench knife. The wind coated blade sliced cleanly through the offender's claw, making him howl in rage.

"Jackass! I'm gonna get you for that!"

The other one's eyes narrowed, before he looked at his brother. "Gozu. Stop fooling around. Let's finish them."

Gozu sighed dramatically. "Way to ruin the fun, Meizu."

The pair disappeared, reappearing around Azuma with their chain wrapped around him. "Show's over." Gozu said, before they both tugged on the chain that joined their gauntlets. Asuma was shredded in half.

Oh shit. That had done it. All three of the team members looked on at the demon brothers with uncontained fury.

"Should we kill them?" Tōshirō asked simply.

"Yup." Shikamaru made no movement. "Shino?"

"We shall." The bug boy straightened up and put his arms forward. All of a sudden, bugs came flying at them at speeds faster than they ever expected. The brothers tried to dodge, but were stuck in place due to a certain shadow intersecting their own. The bugs attached themselves to them and ate away all of their usable chakra, then Tōshirō walked up to them.

"You killed Asuma-sensei…" The icy boy looked at them with a glare that would make the most hardened of Shinobi piss himself. "Time to die."

And soon their heads found themselves separated from their corresponding bodies.

* * *

"Another Hollow down." Naruto spoke calmly as he killed another enemy. "That's all of the ones so far, right?"

"Yup." Ikkaku sheathed his blade and put the scabbard back on his waist. "I wonder what we'll have to do here before the gigai come in. There are people here that actually seem able to fight with swords. I wanna spar against someone like that."

"Yeah!" Naruto flashed him a wide grin. "That'd be fun, huh? We'll just have to see then."

"I haven't seen one person here yet who I can consider beautiful, like myself." Yumichika spoke vainly, "No one here seems to have a fashion sense at all."

"Well, you wouldn't wanna get your hands dirty against those 'ugly' people do you, Peacock-face?" Naruto taunted jokingly, "They would ruin your perfect look that you spent hours on making just perfect." He twirled around and twitted his eyes, mocking the maybe-gay man.

"Yes, I would hate that!" He roared.

Kenpachi soon appeared from between trees. "You're not done yet! There are more Hollows in what is called Wave country. Don't think for a second that you can take a break!"

"About how long of a travel should we expect to get to Wave country?" Naruto asked, hopeful that he would be able to slice more enemies.

"We're close. Just a three day sprint then we smuggle ourselves onto a boat."

Naruto twitched. "A _three day sprint_? Who the hell can have stamina like that?"

Zaraki Kenpachi just turned around, exposing Yachiru who was on his back. "If you can't do that, you're not fit to be in division 11."

The blonde's vigor was renewed with that statement. He would show Zaraki just who was boss. It was him, definitely.

* * *

Gato took a puff from his expensive, premium, "Kobashi Deluxe" brand cigar. Breathing the smoke calmly into the air, he frowned at the man in front of him.

"You said your little 'Demon Brothers' would be able to kill the old man, yet he's still alive. What's up with that?"

The big man in front of him didn't shift in his plush velvet chair. He just continued running his solid fingers down the blade of his oversized kitchen knife.

But the stony faced ninja kept his eyes averted from Gato, acting as if he was entirely insignificant. He said nothing to aid the short, rotund man in finding the answer to his question.

"I said," Gato breathed in. "What's up with that, fucktard!"

The guards flanking Gato gripped their blades when they saw the big man shift in his seat. They slowly relaxed their hands as the realized that their employer was in no immediate danger.

"Nothing's wrong, shortie." He locked his soulless obsidian eyes square with Gato's confused ones. "Just means that the enemies are stronger, and that means that they will be more fun to fight!"

Gato looked away. "Hmph. You better complete this job, 'Demon of the Mist'. I paid good money for you."

"Don't worry." The Demon stood up, walking right past Gato and his men. "I'm going out there myself."

* * *

Three days of travel and a long boat ride made the ragtag group of Shinigami grumpy and tired. Yumichika complained that he looked ugly, Ikkaku had tree sap all over his bald head from an unfortunate accident yesterday, Yachiru needed candy, Kenpachi wanted to fight someone, and Naruto was just bored.

"When will there be some holloooooowwwwwsa?" Naruto complained, bored as hell. Kenpachi looked at him oddly, and then continued gazing forward through his one visible eye, scouting for any of the monsters that had appeared throughout Wave.

Ikkaku, on the other hand, was sick of the blonde's complaining. "Shut up shortie!" And bonked him on the head. Naruto complained more from the hit, but after a while, just shut up, much to everyone's around him relief.

"I have dirt all over me." Yumichika said for the twentieth time in the day. "I look terrible."

"So sorry, Yumichika." Ikkaku said sarcastically.

"You need to stop complaining, peacock-face." Naruto chastised, only to receive looks from the rest of the group. "What?" He asked.

"SO DO YOU!" They all yelled.

The next few days of travel would be terrible for the ragtag group of Shinigami, but they secretly enjoyed it anyways.

* * *

"Duck!" Was all the warning they were given before a gigantic sword soared over their heads. As it embedded itself deep into a tree, Tōshirō was immediately scared of who would posses such freakish strength.

"Heh, is that all you can do? A group of brats against _me_?" Zabuza hefted his newly retrieved sword from the tree, grinning madly under the bandages that covered his face. "I guess the old man's going down quicker than I thought."

"I don't think so," Tōshirō smirked and pulled his own sword from the sheath, "You'll have to get past us to get him, and these 'brats' shouldn't be underestimated."

"I concur." Shino nodded, adjusting his glasses.

"You're so troublesome, Tōshirō." Shikamaru commented, "But he _is_ right. Even if it is troublesome, I have to protect the client, and we are one of the best teams in Konoha."

A tiny exaggeration. But Zabuza didn't have to know that.

"What are you doing?" Asuma yelled, frantic. "This is the Demon of the Bloody Mist we're talking about! Stay back and get in a delta formation around Tazuna!"

They nodded and dashed to a place beside Tazuna as the Zabuza's homemade mist thickened, obscuring their vision.

"Did you get one on him?" Shikamaru whispered.

"Yes." Shino nodded. He had planted a female kikai on his sword as it flew over him, making it so that Zabuza was now easy to locate in the mist for him.

"Good, cause if sensei needs help, we have to be there ASAP."

Tazuna frowned. He didn't understand what they were talking about, but shrugged it off as weird ninja things and remained cautious inside of the triangle of Genin.

The trio of Genin heard a yell of "Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!" and felt relieved as the mist washed away, revealing the two Jounin duking it out over the water. Zabuza got a hit in; a terrible bang came from the blunt side of his blade as he hit Asuma into the water with it.

They knew that Asuma could make it out of the water, that is, until they saw a sphere of water rise out, containing their teacher inside.

"That's it." Tōshirō gripped the handle of his blade tightly and said, "You mess with sensei, you mess with us."

"Agreed." Shino buzzed.

"Yeah." Shikamaru nodded.

"Ha ha!" Zabuza roared, "Such cute little brats you are! You'll be great to bloody my blade with." Three clones spring to life as the Genin charged at Zabuza. They split up and took on one clone each, lightening their load.

"Take this!" One of the Zabuza clones swung his sword at Tōshirō, who dodged to the side and sharply kicked it to remove it from his opponent's hands, before stabbing it in the heart, effortlessly killing it.

Shino simply had his bugs assault his clone and sapped its chakra, watching as it collapsed into a puddle of water.

Shikamaru caught its shadow using his Shadow Imitation jutsu, and had the clone stab itself. Zabuza took note of this jutsu as he was watching this: He would have to take extra care not to get hit like that.

"Hmph. Well done brats." Zabuza smirked, and then yelled, "But each of those were only worth ten percent of my original strength! And you three only took out three!"

He manifested another clone, which took control of the water prison that Asuma was contained in as Zabuza stepped toward the Genin.

"No! Run! You can't take him by yourselves! Take Tazuna and get him to safety! Leave me behind!"

Tōshirō frowned. He pointed his blade forward toward Zabuza. His eyes were shaded from the angle of his head, and he spoke severely. "I thought Genin of team ten didn't leave each other behind, sensei."

He charged forward and swung his blade out to Zabuza, who blocked it with his own and parried. The white haired boy lost his balance and quickly regained it as he blocked another strike from Zabuza's blade. He grunted from the force – Zabuza was incredibly strong – and attempted to parry the blade. But there was a slight problem.

A crack appeared on the blade. Tōshirō's eyes widened at this as Zabuza grinned. The force became ten times heavier as Zabuza pushed down harder, and the white haired boy could only watch as the cracks spiderwebbed across his sword, before it finally gave, resulting in a resounding crack.

Tōshirō barely dodged the sword that came careening down after, and was still in shock over his broken sword. Zabuza shrugged. "It happens to the best of us. Deal with it." He then sliced at Tōshirō but found himself unable to move. He glanced downward and found his shadow intertwined with Shikamaru's. He swore to himself before trying to use his brutish strength to pull himself out. He felt his chakra leaving his body as the kikai swarmed over his body, and he saw Tōshirō standing in front of him, a stub of a sword in his hand.

The white haired boy moved to kill him, but hesitated. If he did this, he would be ending another's _life_. He would be a murderer, a killer, a creep, and an evil person.

A pair of needles sunk themselves into Zabuza's neck, piercing vital spots and causing his body to collapse onto the ground. A masked man, a hunter nin, appeared onto the scene, bowing to the Genin and the newly freed Jounin sensei, stating shortly. "Thank you for defeating him. I have been tracking this man for several days now. Excuse me for my hastiness, but I must be going."

And with that, he jumped into the trees with the body and disappeared.

"Well that went well." Asuma said. Tōshirō looked at the two fragments of his blade, and only half agreed.

* * *

The rest of the day was spent relaxing on the roof of Tazuna's house.

He was deeply upset by the loss of his sword, and he had been glum the entire day.

The little brat known as Inari hadn't done anything to help Tōshirō's mood; in fact, all he did was make it worse.

The two fragments of his broken blade lay next to him as he gazed up at the stars. His white hair still stood up rebelliously, but seemed to droop almost, as if reflecting his mood.

He felt a presence besides him on the roof and bolted up, turning to see the new company. And he was immediately disappointed.

He turned out to be a strange blonde haired kid, wearing a strange black kimono, looking around.

"Nope…" The kid mumbled. "No hollows here."

Tōshirō frowned. "Who are you?"

The kid ignored him and continued looking around for these "hollows."

The white haired boy twitched, and launched his foot forward, catching the kid with it and knocking him to the ground.

"I said… Who the hell are you?"

Said kid was immediately shocked, and said the strangest thing. "You can see me?"

Tōshirō blinked. "Of course I can! Is there any reason why I shouldn't be able to?"

"Well, I'm a ghost and all." The kid rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, "So I assumed you wouldn't be able to see me."

"I see." Tōshirō spoke. The kid was surprised, why wasn't he surprised that he was a ghost? "So, uh, what's your name?"

"Naruto. Uh, Namikaze Naruto."

This surprised Tōshirō. "Are you related to the Fourth Hokage, Namikaze Minato-sama or something? You do look kind of like him."

Naruto shrugged. "Probably some relative I never knew before I died. So, what's your name?"

"Hitsugaya Tōshirō."

"Pleasure to make your acquaintance." Naruto bowed a bit, surprising Tōshirō, who reluctantly did the same. "So, wanna spar?"

"What?"

"Well, judging by your arms' conditioning, you use a sword. And if I'm not mistaken, that's your sword right there right?"

Tōshirō looked where Naruto was pointing. The two halves of his old blade. He frowned. "Yeah."

He took one of his blades and offered it to Tōshirō, smiling happily, "Well you can use this one! I can fight single bladed, so don't worry about that!"

"Sure, why not?" Tōshirō said, grabbing the blade by the hilt. What happened next almost caused the young swordsman to drop the sword. It pulsed with energy; it felt hot in his hands.

"Oh, don't worry about that; that's Kyuubi's spiritual pressure. He's got a lot of it!" Naruto sheepishly rubbed the back of his head.

"Kyuubi?" Tōshirō asked, confused. Wasn't that the demon that attacked Konoha soon after he was born?

"Yeah, he's my Zanpakuto. Kyuubi no Kitsune. He gets grumpy a lot, but he's pretty cool." He got into a ready stance and faced Tōshirō in the eye. "Get ready, Tōshirō-kun."

Tōshirō got into a ready stance as Naruto came flying at him. The white haired boy blocked his blade and parried, flipping the blonde over him. He grunted under the weight. _Geez, this kid's heavy_. He followed through with a quick stab toward the kid, who shifted his weight and dodged in midair.

Naruto pressed his hands forward and landed on the roof, using his strength to spring away and land on his feet. He charged Tōshirō again and, gripping his blade tight, slashed at Tōshirō, who jumped and, striking Naruto's blade knocked him off balance. Using this opportunity, he lunged at the blonde with a stab, but said recipient merely batted the blade away with the back of his hand.

_What?_ Tōshirō thought to himself, _Shouldn't he have gotten cut?_

He saw the blood all over the blonde's left hand and realized the answer. He knew he would get cut, but judging by the grin on his face, he didn't care.

_He fights like a barbarian._ The snowy kid observed, dodging a stab to the left in the nick of time and planting a stab just like his opponents, catching his back. Tōshirō was worried that he had cut him too deeply, but when he looked through his torn robe, Naruto's cut was practically healed already. _What? What is this kid?_

He jumped over the kid's slash by his legs and stabbed forward. Naruto dodged under and stabbed upward. Tōshirō's eyes widened, and he quickly put his hands together in the seal for Kawarimi and replaced himself with one of his original sword fragments.

Naruto's blade came in contact with the shard and pierced it, shattering it to pieces. _Shit! Well, there goes any hope of getting my blade repaired_. He couldn't blame the blonde; he had substituted it there.

Naruto's eyes widened when he saw the shattered blade. _Uh-oh, _He thought, _I just killed my new sparring partner's blade! Not good… But how did he get it there? And how did he get over there?_

Naruto stood up, meaning to ask Tōshirō about what he had just done, and apologize for the sword.

"Don't worry about the sword." Tōshirō said calmly. "It was my fault it broke, because I substituted with it."

Naruto was surprised; this kid was admitting his own faults? There were nice people in this world then, huh?

Tōshirō gripped his blade tightly, getting back into a ready stance to resume fighting. Naruto did the same.

**I now see you worthy of wielding me.**

A cold blast of reiatsu filled the area as Tōshirō fainted.

* * *

He woke up to a snowy field. The sky and the ground met the horizon in a pure shade of white. It was cold enough to freeze someone to the very bone, but Tōshirō didn't seem to notice. He walked forward and looked around, intent of figuring out just where on earth he was.

**Over here, boy.**

Tōshirō whipped around and immediately fell down. There was a real live dragon standing in front of him. This was a dream right? This definitely was a dream, there are no such things as dragons, besides the elemental jutsu of course. The dragon seemed to snort.

**Of course I am real. You are most certainly **_**not**_** dreaming either.**

Tōshirō got up and bowed low. "Gomenasai!" The dragon seemed to laugh at this.

**Do not be so formal with me child. I am, after all, a part of you. You needn't be so formal with **_**yourself**_**, correct?**

"Excuse me?"

**I am the manifestation of your soul, child.**

"What is your name?"

**Heh. I am Hyōrinmaru. I am the part of your soul known as a Zanpakuto.**

Zanpakuto? Hadn't Naruto said something about that? "What is a Zanpakuto?"

**It is the essence of your soul, child. And it is the blade that you can wield to save your purposes, your pride, from being blunted by the world. And that is exactly why I have called you here.**

"What?"

**I have called you here because of your selflessness. You care not when others break your blade, you see your own fault for it and know who is the innocent. But at the same time, you are one to recognize evil in its many forms, and I see the courage deep in your heart, the fire in your soul that is to fend off these evils. This is why I have found you worthy. But there is one last step.**

Tōshirō watched as a man appeared before him, in place of the dragon of before. He had a blue X shaped scar over his face, and wavy hair of the same color that fell to his knees. His robes looked ceremonial, but experience told Tōshirō that they were meant for fighting in too.

**You must prove to me that I am not mistaken. You must establish your place as my master.**

Hyōrinmaru formed a blade in his hand made of ice. Tōshirō's eyes widened as he dodged the dragon's thrust. He felt something form in his grip and briefly glanced at it. A blade just like Hyōrinmaru's rested in his hand. It was a large okatana that was the length of his body, but it was lightweight and sturdy at the same time. The odd part about the blade was the chain extending from the hilt. It was about ten to twenty feet long, and at the end was a crescent shaped blade, obviously meant for use as sort of a grip, or another weapon to be swung. The chain wrapped up his forearm and let the crescent hang from his back, over the large sheath that appeared on his haori.

He registered this new addition, and blocked Hyōrinmaru's next strike easily, parrying the larger dragon and launching a stab, aimed for his opponent's ribs. Hyōrinmaru parried this and used the chain at the end of his blade to wrap around Tōshirō's. He used some sort of momentous strength and tossed the smaller boy way over his head. The dragon disappeared in a blur of speed and appeared right where the white haired boy was set to land, with his blade pointed straight up. He would be cleaved in two if he were to land on that! He put his hands together for a Kawarimi, but found that it wouldn't work in this place. As he flew closer to Hyōrinmaru's blade, he became increasingly frightened, and did the only thing he could. He stuck his blade out toward Hyōrinmaru's, and almost gasped when his aim was exactly right. His sword's tip touched the tip of Hyōrinmaru's exactly, and Tōshirō used this leverage to bounce off and began a forward flip, running his blade through Hyōrinmaru's back.

The dragon blinked at the sword sticking out of his chest, looked down, and smiled.

**I see. I am now at your service, Tōshirō.**

He noticed that the dragon had used his name this time, rather than child. But he was too busy waking up to really notice the joy on Hyōrinmaru's face.

Perhaps this master would be worthy after all. Resourceful, crafty, and unorthodox. This would be a unique experience.

_

* * *

That's the second chapter done._

_I had this story on my hard drive for a while. The first chapter had been done, and I decided that I would post it when I was almost done with the second. So that's the reason in case you were wondering about the quick succession of chapters._

_By the way, I have a little set goal of going to five thousand words per chapter. This chapter just barely fit that, but I think that it fit rather well._

_If this is turning out a bit rushed, let me know please. I'd like to do anything in my power to make Fire and Ice better._

_So until chapter three, see ya._


	3. Demons

He felt like his head was repeatedly being smashed into pieces, over and over again, might he add.

"Ugh… Where am I?" Tōshirō muttered, leaning up in his futon. He got out of it and was about to dress, but felt something on top of where he usually put his haori.

Oh right, Hyōrinmaru.

Tōshirō smiled at the memory and quickly dressed, strapping Hyōrinmaru to his back and wrapping the chain around his arm, just like in the dream. Wait, it wasn't a dream, that was right. The dragon would scold him if it had heard that.

Upon finishing, he left his little room to see where his teammates had gone. They happened to not be in the house. Upon asking Tsunami, the kindly daughter of Tazuna, she said that they were doing something in the woods behind her house; training perhaps they had left him to rest because it looked like he needed it.

Tōshirō thanked her and wandered out of the little house, scoping his head and looking for the teammates. Where could they have gone?

After around ten minutes of searching, he found his team. They were all trying to run up trees. Why was this?

He made himself known, "What are they doing, Asuma-sensei?"

The bearded Jounin smiled. "Climbing trees."

The white haired boy was puzzled by his response. "Shouldn't they already be able to do that? And why are they running and not using their hands?"

"Oh, did I forget to mention that you're not allowed do it with your hands? Here, let me demonstrate."

Asuma called the attention saying that he was going to demonstrate the exercise for Tōshirō and they should pay attention too. He pointed out that he focused chakra to his feet, and used just the precise amount to make himself stick to the surface of the bark, not to be repelled in the case of too little, or to crush the bark and send yourself flying, in the case of too much,

He walked up the tree and stood upside down under a branch, still smoking. "This is how it's done." Asuma smirked. "Now it's up to you. I recommend you get a running start like these guys are doing."

Tōshirō nodded, focusing chakra to his feet. He felt it difficult in doing so, and it took a while, and even then, his control over it was more than a little shaky.

**Let me show you how it's done, young one.**

He felt the chakra of his own body be overcome with a frigid feeling – Hyōrinmaru's chakra if he guessed right – and automatically assume a place under the soles of his feet. At the dragon's prompting, he walked up the tree, making sure to keep in control the chakra that the dragon left to him.

The top of the tree came before he knew it, and as such, he attempted to walk in thin air, but nature rejected this and he found himself plummeting the distance he had walked up. Luckily for him, he straightened up and landed quietly on his feet.

He noticed that his two teammates were looking at him oddly. He stood straight and smiled. "Oops."

Shikamaru stared. "Not that, Tōshirō. How'd you do it on your first go?"

Now he was trapped between a rock and a hard place. He didn't want to reveal the presence of Hyōrinmaru just yet, but he didn't want to lie to his friend. He inwardly sighed. The lesser of two evils it is. "Well, I just focused chakra to my feet. All you really have to do is focus to make it stay the same. But you'll have to pay attention, or you'll try to walk over the tree like I did." He smiled sheepishly at this.

Shikamaru raised an eyebrow at his explanation, but noticed something else. "I thought your sword broke, Tōshirō. Where'd you get that one?"

Shino seemed to nod, too. Tōshirō frowned. This wasn't good. "I, uh, bought it in town after I woke up."

Hyōrinmaru pointedly remarked that he was _not_ something that could be bought in stores. Tōshirō ignored him.

"And the chain thing?"

"It is part of a sword style I want to learn," The white haired boy grinned. "And I have no better opportunity to practice than now."

Shikamaru seemed to accept this and continued walking up the tree. Shino looked at him for a while longer, but then continued practicing also. Tōshirō repeated the exercise as well, until he felt that he had gotten it down.

**Young one, find a source of water. I wish to teach you more.**

Tōshirō nodded, saying to his group that he needed to practice with his sword now. It wasn't necessarily a lie, either.

* * *

**Fire and Ice**

**Written by Obsidian Fireheart**

**Chapter 3 – Demons**

**

* * *

**Kenpachi rubbed his forehead in thought, frowning. "You say that a living person activated a Zanpakuto, Naruto? Are you sure you aren't crazy in the head?"

"No! I swear I saw it! He saw it! We sparred and all! He could see me!" The blonde haired boy yelled frantically, waving his arms in the air and everything.

"I think you're a nutjob." The spiky haired man laid down on the ground to rest. It was disturbing him. There hadn't been a single hollow sighted at all since they came to Wave. He was wondering if they had been given false information.

No, that wasn't the case; Yamamoto, as old and senile as he might have been, still made absolutely sure that no one was pulling a fast one on him. Kenpachi knew that. The Head-Captain was old, but he was the Head-Captain for a good reason.

He came back to his senses and noticed the blonde sparring with Ikkaku, again. He sighed. That kid was so hyperactive and fight-happy that he almost made Yachiru tame in comparison. Speaking of the little pink haired girl… He almost groaned. He heard her bubbly voice in the distance, talking about flowers, peacocks, and beauty. She was with Yumichika no doubt.

"Ken-chan!" He heard her call. Sighing, he stood up and made his way toward his small Lieutenant. "You need to tell Peacock-kun that I'm more beautiful than he is!"

Kenpachi raised an eyebrow. "I thought you didn't care about that?"

"Hmph. He's being mean though." She said, facing a little to the side and putting on her saddest face that she could come up with. Yumichika looked at it and paled as Kenpachi's shadow suddenly seemed so ominous and dark. He turned up to see his captain's grisly face, looking down on him, giving the vain Shinigami a feeling of impending doom.

"Shoo." Kenpachi said, waving his hand. Yumichika took that command and doubled it, clearing the clearing in less than a second, a look of pure, unbridled terror etched across his face.

Naruto looked at the scene with curiosity, suddenly halting the spar with Ikkaku. The bald man frowned, and looked in that direction and spoke. "What's up?"

"I dunno." Naruto said, distant. "It's just so hot."

Ikkaku jumped as Naruto fell to the ground with a thud.

**

* * *

Good, I was expecting you… Hmhmhm…**

He knew that voice. He knew it like the back of his hand. The maliciousness of the speaking, the way the tongue flicked after every sentence; it sent resounding clicks down the sewer-like passages of his mind.

"You again, huh?" He spoke, tentatively. He acknowledged the demon who had served as his blade. "What do you want this time?"

**Nothing much, is a light spar too much to ask for?**

Naruto turned around and saw the Kyuubi in its human form. A handsome young man with straight long red hair. The whisker marks on his cheeks were as prominent as Naruto's own, but they were thicker and blacker. He was taller than the blonde and carried the same two swords that Naruto had.

The surrounding area changed to a single large circular platform over a pit of molten lava. The circle was balanced precariously on a finely sharpened point, meaning that the slightest movement would tip the circle. This is how Naruto's skill soared so fast.

They had to balance each other out, so since Naruto was lighter than Kyuubi, he had the disadvantage by having to step farther from the center to balance the platform. This was usually how their "spars" went, so he didn't mind as much. They started at the same time, and sped toward each other. The two clashed blades and hopped around, trying to land a hit, but still paying attention to the platform's angle. Naruto's blades connected with Kyuubi's, but the fox took one blade and tipped both of Naruto's swords, shattering his guard. After taking more hits from Kyuubi, the blonde managed to get a slice of his own on it. The fox grinned and wiped the blood off his cheek and licked it up, before activating his Zanpakuto.

* * *

Tōshirō sat on the water in the lotus position, with a ring of ice surrounding him. He didn't move a muscle, as he was trying to perfect his control of balancing on the surface of the liquid. Hyōrinmaru was rather quiet in this moment of time, preferring to let his wielder focus. The ice that had formed all around the boy was a product of his concentration; the dragon had nothing to do with it.

He was humming softly, so soft that no one could hear it, but he hummed a tune that Ayame had played for him on her violin. It was a song, called "Sonata of the Leaf," and it carried many memories for the boy.

Hyōrinmaru had no idea how this song helped Tōshirō's concentration, but if it helped he was content to leave it as it was.

What the dragon had been teaching Tōshirō was how to become one with winter. The concept sounded foreign to him at first, but as the dragon explained how it worked to him, he got it.

He suddenly stood up and opened his eyes, before forming handseals. "Ice Style: Snowstorm Jutsu!"

He watched the snow encircle his position from on top of the frozen river like a hurricane before settling down as Tōshirō released the rabbit seal he had been holding.

"That's interesting." Tōshirō began as he walked across the river back to the shore. "I never knew that ice jutsu were possible."

**It's not something that many people can do.** Hyōrinmaru spoke in, **You just happen to be finely attuned to it. But you may find that fire style jutsu are more difficult because of this.**

"Seems like a reasonable trade-off." He said, as he picked up some snow in his hand. He closed his fist, and then opened it again, allowing the snow to scatter in the wind. "So I made all of that ice right there."

**You have a very high amount of the spiritual side of chakra. I used all of this spiritual power to finely tune your chakra into a more useful ability. You may notice now that your chakra feels like mine.**

It was true. His power felt cold and frigid, but it wasn't an unpleasant cold. It was more like the comfortable kind of coolness that people generally liked. But it probably was really much colder than that.

He sat down on the ground by a tree, placing Hyōrinmaru beside him. He made seals and muttered, "Ice Style: Ice Molding Jutsu." A small ice ball appeared in his hand, collected from the water vapor around him, and morphed into a rose, which then morphed into a kunai, but settled back on a rose.

He sighed. If only life was always this relaxing.

"Pardon me," He was interrupted from his thoughts by a voice. Tōshirō looked and noticed a girl in a pink kimono approach. Tōshirō stood up and offered his attention. "Hello. My name is Tōshirō."

"My name is Haku." The girl spoke. "What happened here?" She indicated toward the frozen river and the snow blanketing the grass. "It doesn't usually snow here this time of year. I hope my herbs are okay."

Tōshirō's eyes widened, before he mentally slapped himself in the face. Of course, he shouldn't have done this in a field full of herbs. That was stupid. "I'm sorry," He began, "I was training here."

She looked at him, her face in a questioning look. "But why? You already seem strong enough."

Why? Why did Tōshirō train to get stronger? He mentally pondered this, and came up with a suitable answer for her and himself. "To protect my friends."

Haku seemed to ponder over this, and she then asked, "Is there someone who is precious to you?"

Only one person popped in his mind instantly, and that was Ayame from the ice cream stand. Then more people filled in the blanks. Asuma, Shikamaru, and Shino appeared in his thoughts, along with the Third Hokage and Iruka.

Haku seemed to notice this, and smiled. "Excuse me, but I must be going now." Tōshirō nodded as she began to walk away from the clearing.

"Oh, and by the way," She turned around and gave Tōshirō the prettiest grin he had ever seen on a girl in his life. "I'm a boy."

As she walked away, Tōshirō blinked. The prettiest girl he had ever seen turned out to be a boy. What was the world coming to?

He heard Hyōrinmaru laughing inside of his head and ignored him, picking up the blade and heading back to Tazuna's cottage.

The icy rose held its position by the tree.

* * *

Naruto awoke with a headache. His body was sore and he was hot enough to be inside of a desert.

"Stupid bastard fox, stupid flames of hell or whatever."

He sat up and immediately saw Kenpachi's stony face, which caused him to scramble over to the other side of the clearing. "Ahhh! Uh… Taichou! Good morning…" Naruto said from the other side.

Kenpachi raised an eyebrow before shaking his head. He walked over to where Naruto was and sat beside him. "Naruto."

"Eh?" The blonde turned his head toward his captain.

Kenpachi sighed. "Your demon. Yes, I know what it is. Most of the higher-ups in Seireitei can tell that your reiatsu isn't normal. In fact, it's a bit like a hollow's."

Naruto frowned and looked down. He had hoped that that particular secret hadn't gotten out. But if it was so obvious…

"You shouldn't hide your Zanpakuto so much." Kenpachi said, looking at him. "Kyuubi is insanely powerful, and you are quite experienced with its Shikai. Yes, I do know about that. Why do you think you made fourth seat in the first place?"

Naruto's eyes widened, but it slowly broke out into a grin. "Sure, Taichou."

"Also… Sparring is double for tonight. I'm not going soft on you."

Naruto immediately lost his happy attitude and fell into a slight state of fear. Kenpachi made the Kyuubi look tame in comparison.

He was in for hell tonight.

* * *

Tōshirō walked through the door of Tazuna's home with thoughts buzzing about his mind. Who was this person who spoke to him earlier, Haku, his name was. The swordsman frowned, before making his way to where he thought Tsunami would be. But in fact, in the kitchen, his entire team was there.

"…Uh…" Tōshirō muttered. "Bridge?"

Shikamaru sighed, and stood up, walking over to Tōshirō. "Tōshirō… You're troublesome. You didn't come back last night, and we were all worried. I think Asuma-sensei was about to go looking for you."

Tōshirō looked guiltily at his commander, who just sighed.

"I just fell asleep after training, is all." He spoke, ashamed of himself for doing this to them.

"Eh… whatever… troublesome people…" Shikamaru sighed. Asuma stood up from the other side of the table and got their attention.

"Well," Asuma began, now that Tōshirō was back, "I think we have a bridge to guard."

Tōshirō nodded, and he followed the rest of the others out.

* * *

The bridge, thankfully wasn't particularly bad for wear. Tazuna was there already, and he rushed over to see them. "There you are!" He said thankfully, "Do you think you can lend us a hand? Giichi and his men left us this morning…"

"No problem." Asuma grinned. He indicated to his students. "We'll do anything in our power to help you."

"Thank you very much." Tazuna smiled. "I guess we have some stuff to do now then."

"Aw man…" Shikamaru moaned. "What a pain."

* * *

Some time into the labor, Tōshirō could be found aiding several men in the transport of several beams. The people working with him were amazed that the small boy didn't break a sweat as he lifted the beams, which were taller than him, across the bridge, two at a time over each shoulder.

"I underestimated you, kid." One of the men said, smiling. "You're pretty strong." He himself was carrying as much as Tōshirō, and they both were talking on the way to the other side of the bridge.

"It's in the job description, I guess." Tōshirō replied. He smiled then. "Well, I also practice swordplay first and foremost, so I suppose that that helps also."

"Mmhm." The man said, looking to the side. "Being a ninja must be pretty cool. I had a cousin who moved to Water Country to be a ninja there. How is it you do all of this crazy stuff?"

"We train hard. For a really long time too. Ninja duty is pretty much our entire life at this point, I think." Tōshirō put his beams down by the end of the bridge. "We have to be the protectors of the people. Or so our Hokage says. But we also have to fight wars and do the stuff that people don't want to do so other people who run different parts of society don't have to. I guess we're just another thing that makes people tick."

The man nodded, slightly intrigued by Tōshirō's mature standpoint. "You seem to know a lot about how this works."

"Yeah. I studied this in the Academy for a long time." Tōshirō said, "I know that by the time I finished the curriculum, I was ready to give anything for Konoha. I hope that doesn't sound like I've been brainwashed…" He said, raising an eyebrow at his own slip.

"So… do you fight and all?"

Tōshirō nodded. "Uh-huh. That's what happens when two villages or parties want conflicting things."

"You come from Konoha, right? They say that's the most powerful of the Hidden Villages."

"Well, I guess you could say that. But that's only because we embrace teamwork more than individualism. Our second Hokage said that three Genin can beat a Jōnin, three Chūnin can beat one of the Sannin, and three Jōnin can beat the Hokage. I guess that's just how we go."

He nodded, interested. "That's quite a life to lead for one so young."

Tōshirō smiled, and spoke again. "I guess, but that's how I contribute to society."

* * *

This routine continued for many days, and since training in and out whenever they could also, they became quite a bit stronger. They were currently eating dinner at Tazuna's house, and enjoying it wholeheartedly. Tsunami, the pleasant woman she was, was content to see her guests eat her food and she would stand by the sidelines, insisting that they treat her home as if it was theirs. Inari, of course, wasn't pleased at all with that, but his mother quelled any argument.

"This is delicious, as usual, Tsunami-san. Thank you for the meal." Shino spoke politely. The others nodded in seconding. Tsunami smiled and blushed.

"Why, thank you, Shino-kun."

they continued eating, and as the plates were cleaned, Tsunami took them, saying that her guests didn't need to clean up, and she washed them up.

What a nice woman.

Tōshirō thanked her for the food again, then announced that he was exhausted, and he went to bed early. Inari gave him the darkest of looks as the white haired boy passed him, but Tōshirō didn't pay attention.

"Tōshirō's been tired a lot lately." Shikamaru observed, "But this is the most tired I have ever seen him."

Asuma nodded. "He's been training with his sword all day today. It just means that he's taking this job seriously."

* * *

"Tōshirō can handle himself." Shino spoke, glancing at Shikamaru through his sunglasses. Shikamaru sighed. They had left Tōshirō at Tazuna's house to rest after whatever training he did. It seemed intense, and Asuma was willing to let him fly solo today.

"Yes, I know, but… so troublesome…"

Shino barely nodded. "It's good that you care for your comrades, though. But I wouldn't be so upset. He is the Rookie of the Year for a reason, after all."

"Yeah." Shikamaru nodded, hands in his pockets, walking to the bridge.

Asuma looked back at his two students, who both seemed to be slow today. "Come on, guys! And here I was told that kids were usually more energetic than adults."

"Troublesome…" Was all that came back.

When they made it to the bridge, they recoiled at the sight.

"W-what?" Tazuna spoke up, for the first time since leaving, and dropping to his knees. "My people…"

A laugh could be heard through the thickening mist that blanketed the area. "Oh, those were your people? My bad. Heh… Maybe not."

Asuma immediately recognized the voice. "You again? I knew it was too good to be true."

"Heh, you sound disappointed to see me, Sarutobi." Zabuza grinned beneath his facial bandages. There he stood, this time, in a dark jumpsuit, by a younger ninja. The hunter nin. "I underestimated your students before, but I won't make the same mistake again!"

"Oh, you won't, because this time, you'll still be fighting me. And let me tell you this, I have the power of wind on my side. There's nothing I can't cut."

"Heh…" Zabuza's face made an unreadable expression. "We'll see."

Asuma immediately gave orders. "Shikamaru! Guard Tazuna and restrain any enemy that gets too close. Shino, take out the fake hunter nin."

Both boys nodded, and leapt toward their targets. Zabuza grinned, and spoke bloodthirstily. "I guess that means you're the first to die."

"We'll see." Asuma countered.

Meanwhile, Shino faced off with the unknown hunter nin and used his bugs to parry the effeminate boy's many senbon attacks. However, he was steadily losing numbers because of this, and he decided to change his tactic.

"You are a challenging opponent." Shino acknowledged, nodding to the hunter, before swarming his insects at the boy's next location. The Aburame guessed right, and the masked nin was surrounded by chakra draining parasites.

"As are you. May the best shinobi win this match. Ice Style: Ice Spikes Jutsu!" The masked nin burst into a ball of ice spikes, and Shino only barely maneuvered his hive away in time.

"Good move." Shino directed his swarm to the next appearance of the boy, preferring this time to simply harass him with his insects and close in with Taijutsu. The hunter proved to be a pro at blocking, and used many ice techniques along with his hands to block the many attacks that Shino launched. The bug user was quickly becoming agitated at the endless march, but did not let up on his attack. When his opponent used the Ice Spikes Jutsu again, Shino became cautious.

When the masked one appeared again, before Shino could attack again, signed for another jutsu. "I regret having to resort to this, but if Zabuza-sama wants you dead, it must be so. Secret Jutsu: Crystal Ice Mirrors!"

Rectangular panes of glass formed around Shino, in two rows around, before closing the dome with a single mirror at the top. Instantly, as the masked nin stepped into the mirror, images of him appeared on all of the other mirrors.

Then came the senbon barrage.

His supply was deep, and Shino spent a good while dodging his weapons. Although he was known for his keen mind, he wasn't entirely sure of what to do here.

He was at a severe disadvantage, and he knew it.

Outside of the mirrors, Asuma faced off with Zabuza. The wind user was battling with trench knives, while Zabuza used his massive cleaver, along with his massive repertoire of water jutsu. Asuma used many wind jutsu to combat them, before putting the spice onto the battle.

"Let's see your sword block this." Asuma grinned as he focused his wind energy into his trench knives, making them glow with super sharpened chakra. The bearded Jōnin hacked away at Zabuza, but something wasn't right.

Wind chakra should cut through anything. Even the steel of Zabuza's cleaver.

"Heh, noticed, have you?" Zabuza spoke smugly. Asuma's eyes widened. Zabuza's sword was glowing with the same energy that his trench knives were! "Just because I come from Water Country, does that mean I have to be water natured?"

"Hm…" Asuma frowned. His usual ending technique that he was famous for was blown like that. "That's not good. Wind Style: Infinite Blade Jutsu!"

Zabuza noticed the impending chakra around him, and quickly threw his sword away before performing a switch with it, making the wind resistant blade take the damage from the scary jutsu that the Jōnin had used. His blade hadn't taken damage, thankfully, so he used a Water Whip Jutsu to recall the blade back to him.

"What a scary technique, Asuma." Zabuza acknowledged, "But that can't be your best."

"If you think that's my best then you'll surely lose this fight."

Asuma was looking to his surroundings surreptitiously, and noticed that Shino was having problems within that peculiar dome of ice. He couldn't order Shikamaru to assist him lest he leave Tazuna open, and he couldn't go or else Zabuza would mow down his student and the client.

This was bad. If only Tōshirō was here.

* * *

Tōshirō woke up to a lot of racket happening in the house. He listened to it, then cautiously got dressed and grabbed Hyōrinmaru, placing the blade onto his back. He twisted open the door and walked down the steps into the foyer. And upon seeing the current sight, he was startled.

"We'll only take you hostage. Your brat can live… with a broken leg of course."

"If you lay one finger on my child, I'll bite my tongue and bleed to death. Then what'll happen to your hostage?"

What was happening? Two men stood at the opposite end of the room from a quivering Tsunami and a crying Inari. This was not how the morning was supposed to go.

Leaping over the rest of the steps, he immediately drew his blade and took a defensive stance in front of the two. "Who are you guys and what are you doing here?"

The two men across from him snorted, then laughed. "Hah! The little brat thinks he can play hero! Isn't there something wrong with this picture? Gatō will surely laugh at this just as we are." The one with the hat said.

The one with the eyepatch responded. "Hah. It doesn't matter, we'll just kill him too."

Tōshirō smirked. Were these two rogue samurai or something? Cause they definitely weren't ninja, that was for sure. He spoke. "Tsunami-san. Sorry for dirtying up your floor. Inari, sorry for the sight."

She was taken aback. "What?"

But by then, the two men both had holes in their chests. They were wrapped up in a chain and stabbed through their bodies with the rather long blade that Tōshirō carried. The blood was dripping onto the floor, and Tsunami had shielded her son's eyes lest he see this.

"Burn in hell, Gatō scum. To threaten a woman and a child like that…" Tōshirō said darkly. He then looked at Tsunami. "I'll remove these bodies and leave them to rot. Can you tell me where the others went?"

Tsunami nodded. "They went to the bridge."

"Hm… If these guys attacked… There must be something going on at the bridge…"

He rushed out, hoisting the two corpses over his shoulders and travelling a ways away into the woods before dropping them.

"Be crow food, bastards."

But for now, he needed to see if his team needed his assistance at the bridge. He rushed off in that direction with all speed.

* * *

"M-Mommy? What happened to those men and Tōshirō?" Inari asked warily. His mother was cleaning up the blood on the floor, and was thankfully far enough along when Inari returned to his senses from shock that it couldn't really be identified.

"… Tōshirō killed them, Inari-chan. He saved us."

Inari's eyes widened. Perhaps heroes really did exist.

* * *

Shino almost sighed in relief as a familiar figure entered the dome of mirrors. He was slightly worn, perhaps from hurrying, and was covered in blood.

"Tōshirō…?" Shino muttered, worried

"Incident at the house." The white-haired kid said, "Don't worry about it."

Shino nodded. He then knew to tell Tōshirō the situation. "We are facing an Ice Style user. He uses senbon and can attack from each of the mirrors with great accuracy. It pleases me to see you here to assist me, Tōshirō."

The swordsman smirked. "Ice, huh…?"

Shino nodded, confused. "Why?"

"Just interesting. That's all."

The masked ninja spoke. "Enough of the talking. This needs to end now. I shall attack more intensely than before." He threw multitudes of senbon, out into the arena.

"Ice Style: Snowstorm Jutsu!" Tōshirō created a swirl of snow and made it circle around him and Shino, knocking all of the incoming senbon off course.

Shino was confused. "You too, Tōshirō? Since when?"

He looked apologetic. "Sorry for not telling you, Shino. This is what I have been working on while I was training."

"I see."

"Well, let's see if your mirrors can take this. Ice Style: Ice Molding Jutsu!" Tōshirō created a very large spike made of ice in his hand. He looked slightly winded from this, but held his ground. "And… Go!"

The massive spike careened into the mirror, and the ice began to crack. But… it was the wrong ice. The spike fell into pieces, eventually becoming no more than a heap on the ground.

"W-What? That was the biggest thing I could make, and your mirror didn't even crack?"

The masked ninja nodded. "Your ice is brittle and fragile. You are obviously a novice in the Ice Style. I've known this since I watched you train, Tōshirō."

Tōshirō at first was confused, but then he realized it. "You… you are… Haku?"

Haku smiled, discarding his mask. "Yes."

"So you were spying on me." Tōshirō drew Hyōrinmaru, getting into a ready stance.

"I was." Haku readied his senbon. "But now, it is time to continue battle. But this time…" He threw the senbon, and Tōshirō deflected a lot of them by spinning with his blade, but Shino wasn't so lucky.

He took a senbon to the neck, and fell quickly to the ground, unmoving. Tōshirō's breath hitched.

He was dead.

His eyed narrowed, and he held Hyōrinmaru in front of him, calling up energy.

"You killed my teammate. A friend… You… Sit upon the frozen heavens! Hyōrinmaru!"

Haku's eyes widened as Tōshirō's blade took the shape of a crystalline dragon. The dragon was completed, and it roared. He felt the temperature drop many degrees. His opponent was serious.

"Die!" Tōshirō spun his blade and the dragon began to destroy every mirror in the structure that Haku created, knocking the nin out and grounding him. Instantly, Tōshirō was above him, with his blade over Haku's heart.

"Kill me." Haku whispered.

Tōshirō hesitated. "What?"

"…I am no longer useful as Zabuza-sama's tool. I am now a broken weapon, and broken weapons get disposed of. You have won. Please, end my life."

"No."

"What?"

"I won't. I can't kill for revenge." Tōshirō spoke, regaining his senses. "It won't happen. It will violate my swordsman's code of honor."

Haku smiled wryly, feeling no urge to move. "There is no place for honor among ninjas."

"Then I will make one."

"…" Haku laid there. In an abrupt movement, the ice user reached into his coat, producing a scroll and handing it to Tōshirō. "My bloodline jutsu are in that scroll. I had written that in hopes that my heritage not be eradicated. Please, take it and finish me off."

"…Why?"

"I am no longer useful. End me…"

"If that… is what you wish…" Tōshirō raised his blade.

At the other side of the arena, Asuma dueled Zabuza quickly and viciously with his trench knives. Zabuza was becoming worn, he could tell, as his attacks and more importantly defense were slipping. A constant barrage of wind jutsu and slashes from his knives seemed to be doing the trick. At this rate, he would get –

An opening! Asuma blocked Zabuza's cleaver with one of his knives, ducked under the sword, and struck Zabuza in the chest with the blade.

Or at least, he thought it was Zabuza. Somehow, the other ninja had managed to get between him and Zabuza, taking the blow for him.

"I have… fulfilled your wish… Zabuza-sama. But I am… now a broken tool… forgive me…" Haku coughed up blood, staining the wood of the bridge, and took his last breath.

And then something even worse happened. From the other side of the bridge, they all heard someone speak. It was Gatō, and the multitude of people he had hired standing behind him. "Aww, did your little tool die, Demon of the Mist?" Gatō reprised his quote, "Or should I say, Baby Demon. Not even that! You're pathetic! You couldn't take down three kids and a man who's bound to have lung cancer!"

Zabuza growled. "Gatō… What is the meaning of this?"

The short businessman walked up to Haku and kicked his body, then spat on it. "You and your buddy here are pathetic. I wasn't planning on paying you anyway! And it's a shame your little buddy is dead. He'd make a good slave, wouldn't he?"

Zabuza's eyes narrowed. "Do you think I care what you say about him? Look at him, he's useless now!"

Tōshirō, who had been listening, finally had enough. Calling upon a voice he never knew he had, he yelled, "Hey, you! What the fuck are you saying? Haku adored you, idolized you. Hell, he devoted his life to save you! And what does he get? You spitting on his body with your words like Gatō has? Is that it? Is that all you are? Where is your honor as a swordsman? Tell me!"

Zabuza looked down at Haku, then back at Tōshirō. "… Kid. There is no place for honor in the shinobi world. But… I suppose you're right on this one." A tear managed to escape Zabuza's eye. "Perhaps I was wrong… And you," he turned to Gatō, "will pay for this!" He looked at Asuma. "Our fight is over."

"W-wait, I can give you anything! Power, money, women! Name it and it will be yours!"

"The only thing I want." Zabuza hoisted up his blade, "Is your blood!"

Gatō was parted cleanly into two pieces.

"Oi! That guy just killed our meal ticket!"

"What the hell? Get 'im!"

Zabuza looked at Tōshirō. "Prove to me your ability as a swordsman. Most kills wins?"

Tōshirō looked at the crowd. He hated to be ruthless, but… these people deserved it for desecrating the Wave Nation as they had. "Fine."

The two disappeared as they eliminated the small army.

Asuma frowned at them, but didn't comment on it. "Shikamaru, come here please."

Shikamaru came closer to Asuma, clearly slightly shaken by the events. In the heat of the moment, he had retrieved Shino and carried him over his shoulder.

"Here, let me see Shino." Asuma pulled the needle out of Shino's neck then quickly signed a jutsu. "Genjutsu: Smelling Salt."

Shino woke up with a start, looking around warily.

Shikamaru quirked an eyebrow. "Where did you learn that, Asuma-sensei?"

"Eh… from Kurenai."

"Kurenai-sensei? Aren't you seeing her?"

Asuma blushed madly. "What? N-No!"

In the distance, arguing could be heard.

"Face it you albino midget, I won."

"What? Albino midget? At least I'm not an eyebrowless freak!"

* * *

It was a sobering event from the temporary cheerfulness that had inhabited before as the group buried Haku's body into the ground at the top of a cliff overlooking the sea. Zabuza was quiet as the sticks – a makeshift cross – were put into place, and he had turned away from everyone.

"Haku… As a guide… I have failed you…"

Zabuza felt a hand on his shoulder. Looking, he saw Asuma. The cigarette smoking Jōnin smiled comfortingly. "It's alright to be upset, Zabuza. It happens to the best of us."

Zabuza looked at Haku's grave. "But the mistake I made ruined another's life. I ashamed that only now I see this."

Asuma looked at the setting sun, watching it making its way to the horizon. "Where will you be going after all of this?"

"Away. I have things to do. I only regret that Haku won't be there to see me finally liberate the Mist."

"…Yes…" Asuma took a drag from the cigarette. "Good luck on your goal, if that is what you wish to do. IF you accomplish it, perhaps we may cross paths again someday."

Zabuza nodded. "Train your students well, Sarutobi Asuma. Don't fail them as I have failed mine."

"I won't."

"Alright. I'll hold you to that." Zabuza took one final look at Haku's grave, bowed low, and walked away. Asuma watched him make his way down the hill.

"Alright kids. Time to head back to Tazuna's."

* * *

Zaraki Kenpachi sat on the railing of the bridge, gazing at the gulls in the sky.

"Well, what do you know? Naruto was right. Interesting."

_

* * *

This was rushed. Of that, I am sure. No one has finished the Wave Arc in two chapters._

_The ending was nice though. At least that worked out._

_I also feel kind of bad for giving Shika the Sakura role...  
_

_Oh, and I made the chapter a little longer as a somewhat inadequate bonus for those who waited for me to update. Yes, I am slow at updating, I know that. I hope to fix that one day._

_And I also made a fail for Tōshirō's height. I took the liberty of correcting that in the previous chapters. Thanks to litewarior4 for pointing that out._

_And for those of you who were confused at the perspective switching between the Soul Reapers and Ninjas… well, that'll resolve itself eventually I hope._

_... AND THE SITE ATE MY SECTION BREAKERS! BLARGH! I have to use those bad ones that barely work now...  
_

_Well, until chapter four, see ya. Hopefully that comes quicker than before._


	4. And Hollows

**Plot Spoiler: Gullible.**

**

* * *

**

Haku followed Zabuza closely, having given up on trying to get his attention for now. They had arrived in Water Country after taking a boat there straight from Wave.

But the whole time, Zabuza had ignored him.

He had no idea why he was chained to his sword, but that wasn't on his mind for now. He was annoyed and angry. Why wasn't Zabuza-sama listening to him and yet dragging him around still? Was he going to be sold? Was that it?

Haku sighed as he felt the chain tugging at his chest harder. "Zabuza-sama… please… I can be a good tool again. I won't fail again… Please forgive me…"

Zabuza didn't hear him.

"Please, Zabuza-sama!"

…

"Please!"

No response.

"Please! Listen to me!"

The chain fell off.

**

* * *

Fire And Ice**

**Written by Obsidian Fireheart**

**Chapter 4 - … And Hollows**

* * *

When Kenpachi came back, he looked at his group. They all seemed to be in discontent of sorts. Bored, maybe? That was probably it.

"No Hollows then, since I left?"

Ikkaku shook his head. "I think that whatever attracted the Hollows here is gone."

Kenpachi looked around, and, feeling no Hollow signatures at all, nodded. "Alright then. I guess it's time to go back to the mainland and look for Hollows there."

They all nodded, and they began to travel with their Captain, intending on making his way to the new bridge as it was now complete.

"Say, Captain…" Naruto broached. Kenpachi looked at him. "Why do you think the Hollows are popping up around here anyways?"

Kenpachi looked ahead. "I can't say I know. The ninja here have a lot of energy, though. I guess they came here to feed on it."

"That sounds right." Naruto nodded. He looked ahead. "Hey, aren't those the ninja you were watching?"

Kenpachi nodded, "Yeah, they are."

"Oh look, there's Tōshirō too!"

As Naruto charged off to talk to him, Kenpachi grabbed the back of his collar. "No. We don't need to let them know of us any more than when you sparred with him."

"But I…"

"No, Naruto." Kenpachi looked at him sternly.

Ahead they noticed Tōshirō look back at them and stare in wonder. When his friend with the ponytail looked back in confusion, the white haired boy just said to him, "I thought I saw something."

"Eh… Troublesome."

The one in the trench coat remained silent, and their commander didn't even look. "Come on boys, quit slackin' off now."

"Right, Sensei."

Kenpachi looked at Naruto. "See, they didn't even notice us."

"I think Tōshirō definitely saw us. He just doesn't want to tell anyone."

* * *

After a while of walking, the group of ninja paused for the night and began to set up camp. Tōshirō set up his tent, meanwhile looking at the sketchbook that lay halfway outside of his backpack.

"Hmm… Haven't drawn in a while. There might be something to see here."

Shikamaru grumbled something about troublesome as he crawled into his tent, intent on not taking first watch for the night.

Asuma came back with some freshly caught fish from the lake through the trees and he set them over the fire. "Alright boys, foods here… Shikamaru, get your ass out here." He said lightly.

As they encircled the small fire they watched their meals cook. Since stealth wasn't of importance anymore, as they were in Fire Country now, they didn't need to cover the flame.

They chatted amicably, but Tōshirō's thought were on other things. Those guys on the bridge. Naruto was with them, but he didn't recognize the others. He had known they were there for a while – they weren't exactly a quiet bunch – and somehow were invisible to everyone but him. Just like those crazy monsters that showed up every now and then.

His sword rested by him as he pondered this, it was gleaming in the firelight. _You know something about this, don't you, Hyōrinmaru?_

The sword was silent. Did swords sleep?

"Tōshirō? Earth to Tōshirō…? Are you in there?"

"Eh?" Tōshirō shook his head, dismissing the thoughts. "Sorry, I guess I zoned out a bit."

Asuma laughed good naturedly at that, and said, "Well, your fish will be charcoal soon, so you'd better eat it now."

The white-haired boy nodded, grabbing the fish off of over the fire and biting into it.

"Alright… anyone volunteering for watch?"

Tōshirō spoke up. "I'll take first watch."

Asuma nodded. Seeing no more volunteers, he frowned. "Alright. I'll take middle watch, and Shino can take last watch. You can be lazy tonight, Shikamaru."

The pineapple-haired boy sighed in relief and crawled into his tent. The others did the same, and soon Tōshirō was the only one left out by the fire. He quelled it with an ice jutsu and picked up Hyōrinmaru and his sketchbook, making his way to the lake that Asuma had obtained the fish from.

He left his haori in his tent, leaving him in his black tank top as he enjoyed the evening breeze on his shoulders. He sat down by the lakeside and placed his sketchbook on his lap, spotting a crane standing on a rock. The trees still contained a hint of green in them, despite the lack of light, and the moon shone brilliantly into the waters. It made a perfect picture.

But before he could put pencil to paper the bird took off. Tōshirō frowned, and scanned the lake for any other things.

And was met with a grinning Naruto. "Boo!"

"Augh!" Tōshirō jumped back. "What are you doing here?"

"Me?" Naruto spoke, pointing his thumb at himself and grinning stupidly. "Nothin'"

Tōshirō raised an eyebrow. "I'm sure you didn't come here to watch me draw a picture or make me jump. I bet you're responsible for scaring the bird away too."

Naruto rubbed his head, "Eh… Well, I guess I'm kind of bored, and I wanted to see what you were up to."

"Hm." The white haired one looked out over the lake. "Just enjoying the view."

"Eh?" Naruto looked in the same direction. "What's there to enjoy about it. It's just water."

Tōshirō looked back at him, but then sighed. "Never mind." He put his pencil on the paper. "I guess I'll draw the rocks. Are you gonna watch?"

"Well, I guess I might as well. I've got nothing better to do."

The duo sat there in silence, Tōshirō looking back and forth between his paper and the rocks and Naruto staring awed at the other's drawing prowess. "So who are the people you're travelling with?"

"Huh?"

"I saw you on the bridge. You know, that huge guy with the spiky hair and the bald guy and stuff. You _do_ know them, right?"

Naruto nodded, "Uh yeah. The big one is Kenpachi-taichou. He's the leader of my division. Then you have Ikkaku – he's the bald one – and he's the third seat. Oh, I forgot Yachiru-chan! She's the lieutenant. She's really little but she can be scary. And there's Yumichika, who's probably gay, and he's the fifth seat. I'm the fourth seat."

Tōshirō blinked. "Okay… what?"

Naruto sighed. "Well, we're dead pretty much. When people die they go to this place called Soul Society. And then there's people who are in the middle of Soul Society, called Seireitei, and they are Shinigami. We're Shinigami of the Eleventh Division!"

Tōshirō frowned. "Shinigami? I remember hearing the tale of our Fourth Hokage… When the Kyuubi no Kitsune attacked our village, he summoned up a Shinigami to seal it into himself, killing himself and the demon in the process."

Naruto looked at his sword. "Does that mean that we're somehow connected? Because my Zanpakuto is Kyuubi, and he's a demon, so…"

"Well, I guess that all Zanpakuto come from somewhere. Hey, you have the same name as the Fourth also… Maybe that has something to do with why Kyuubi's your Zanpakuto."

They heard a rustling in the bushes, and they both turned in that direction. Out from the foliage came a massive shadow, and it lunged at them. Tōshirō was quick to draw Hyōrinmaru and block the beast, as was Naruto with Kyuubi. The monster jumped over them at the sights of their swords and landed behind them.

"A Hollow." Naruto muttered.

"A what?" Tōshirō frowned. "This is one of those crazy monsters…"

"Yeah. They like to eat people's souls. That's why we're here. To kill these things. No one but us can see them."

The hollow clicked its tongue. "Well, well. Two kids with swords. Let's see how that handles."

Tōshirō stood his ground, sword at the ready. The beast, like a chameleon, launched its tongue at the boy. Naruto tried to intercept, but the tongue swerved around him. As it neared Tōshirō, the round end of it exploded before the boy could block it with his sword, spraying him with all sorts of corrosive liquid that began to eat through his clothes and skin.

"Shit!" Tōshirō cursed, dropping his sword and forming hand seals. "Water Style: Cleansing Jutsu!" The air became moist, then a bunch of water appeared over Tōshirō, dropping onto him and removing the acid.

But the liquid had done its damage. His shirt and arms were peppered with bloody holes. That wasn't good.

Naruto growled. "That was a dirty move!"

The Hollow clicked its tongue. "Not everyone fights honorably, boy."

"I noticed," Tōshirō growled, he charged at the Hollow with his sword drawn and stabbed at its mask. the Hollow dodged to the side and opened its mouth, preparing more acid. Tōshirō pressed his heels against the ground and muttered, "Flash Step." He appeared at the other end of the field and fell over, feeling a little lightheaded. But he wasn't needed in the rest of the battle, for it was already over.

"Ravage, Kyuubi no Kitsune!" The Hollow developed horizontal slashes in its mask, like claw marks, before dispersing. Naruto had crossed the distance between the Hollow and himself in no time at all, and was now standing there, with swords extended from each of his fingers.

"Whoa…" Tōshirō spoke. "That was pretty good. What was that?"

Naruto looked back at him, the swords on his fingers merging back into the twin swords they were before. "That was my Shikai."

"A Shikai?"

Naruto grinned. "Yeah! Captain says that you've used yours too, when he was watching your battle against that ice girl slash boy. Some dragon thingy."

Tōshirō inwardly laughed at the ice girl comment, but he remembered. "Oh. That… I just wanted Haku to die… After I thought he killed Shino."

Naruto walked up to him and put a hand on his shoulder. "It's okay, man. That's how we all activate our Shikai. Except we do it facing Hollows instead of transgender ninjas."

Tōshirō smiled at the humor, and looked to the moon. "Well, I guess my section of the watch is over. I'd better get back now."

"Eh?" Naruto spoke. "Well, okay. I guess I'll go see what the others are doing."

"Mmhm…" Tōshirō picked up his sketchbook, which thankfully, wasn't damaged. "Well, it was nice seeing you, Naruto."

Naruto grinned. "And you too, Tōshirō."

They both walked their separate ways. A breeze rustled the area between them.

* * *

As Tōshirō put his haori on, he noted wryly that the blotches on his arm looked terrible. He would have to get them looked at when they made it back to Konoha. But until then, he couldn't let his team know about the Hollows.

If they couldn't see them, it wasn't their responsibility to know.

But as they kept walking, it itched terribly, and he had to resist the urge to scratch at it. They had packed up the tents quickly and silently, the conversation coming after they started walking. They spoke about various topics as the wall of Konoha came closer.

"Oh, Asuma-san! Welcome back!" The two people at the gate, Izumo and Kotetsu said cheerily. Asuma grinned back at them and led the team through the gates.

"Alright. I'll report to the Hokage. You guys can go back home. You need it." They nodded and went their separate ways.

The air in his apartment was a welcome scent as Tōshirō sighed happily and flopped down onto his bed, gazing at the ceiling. He placed Hyōrinmaru against the wall by his nightstand.

He remembered the scroll that Haku gave him and pulled it out of the pocket in his haori, looking inside. He had been meaning to look in here for a while now. Perhaps he could get some good reading in.

He frowned as he scanned through it and saw no quick solution to strengthening up his ice. He remembered the moment when his ice spike crumbled against the mirror clear as day. He looked at the first jutsu and quirked an eyebrow.

_Ice Style: Crystal Ice Mirrors Jutsu_

Tōshirō supposed now would be a good of a time as any to put Haku's legacy into use.

They managed to get some time off of missions for the next couple of weeks, instead, preferring to train and get their hands on more useful techniques.

Upon discovering Tōshirō's inclination towards ice, which Shino had graciously not mentioned until then, Asuma had them all tested for elemental affinities. The results were interesting.

Tōshirō's paper ended up as four incredibly soggy pieces. Asuma noted the strong wind piece in his affinity, and the water looked quite strong also. It wasn't a wonder then as how he could use ice.

Shino's was also to be expected. His paper dissolved and became a heap of dust. It figured that an earth user would support bugs in his body.

Shikamaru's, however, was interesting. Instead of the paper doing anything Asuma expected, the paper simply fell through Shikamaru's hands and into the earth, never to be found again.

Asuma quirked an eyebrow. "Well that was interesting. It simply fazed through your hands. I'm not sure what that represents, but… that was certainly interesting."

Shikamaru looked at the ground and just sighed. "Troublesome. Another thing to figure out."

Tōshirō smiled awkwardly. Shino said nothing.

After figuring out their abilities, they began to train on them. Asuma had told his teams that the Chūnin exams were coming up, and that if they were ready, he would nominate them. And whatever Shikamaru's affinity was, he learned that he could channel it into a kunai rather easily, and a kunai was something that was supposed to resist chakra.

So Asuma had taken the liberty of having trench knives forged for Shikamaru, as it could prove to be a very powerful ability. Once the deer boy noticed that Asuma had made him a pair of knives, he thanked him but inwardly dreaded the training that would come with it.

Meanwhile, Shino had taken time off of team training to train with his father, promising to come back stronger than ever. The two could every now and then be seen collecting new bugs, for what purpose the others never figured out, and his hive seemed to be expanding.

Tōshirō also was training away from the team, but he had no teacher, just himself and Hyōrinmaru. The sword would provide very helpful advice for the molding of his freezing chakra, and even helped him correct his Flash Step so it was more usable in battle.

But at the moment, his ice was still as brittle as ever and would fall to a strike from Hyōrinmaru like paper.

He had tried meditating, and making walls of ice repeatedly, but nothing seemed to work. It wasn't until a somewhat familiar man came by that he figured out the solution.

Tōshirō put his hands together and pulled them apart, constructing a block of ice in the shape of a sword. He gripped it tightly and sliced the tree in front of him, watching his blade shatter.

That was not what was supposed to happen, he thought.

He tried again several more times until he saw someone walk by. The man seemed to look at him with his lone eye and walked toward him.

"Ice style, eh? That's interesting." The silver haired man said, starting conversation. "I never knew anyone here had that affinity." He looked at Tōshirō calculatingly and said. "You're one of Asuma's, aren't you? I'm Kakashi."

He nodded. "My name is Tōshirō. And yeah, I've been doing some extra training to work on the integrity of my jutsu. None of them seem to hold up."

Kakashi tilted his head as Tōshirō demonstrated again, watching the sword shatter. "Well, that seemed fine. There can't be something that wrong with it. Let me see the hand seals."

Tōshirō did them, and then created the sword. Kakashi nodded.

"Ah, that may be it. I didn't see a hybrid seal there."

"What?" The swordsman tilted his head. "Hybrid Seals?"

"Yes. They are used to merge two chakras together and keep them stable. Since you aren't using a hybrid seal, the wind will naturally try to become wind and the water will try to stay as water, which makes for a bad jutsu… for wind and water I think the seal would be something like this…" Kakashi put his hands together, a half bird seal on the left and a half serpent one on the right. "Yeah. That should do that. Stick one of those at the end of your sealing and see what happens."

It took him a while to get his hands used to the positioning, but once he had, he attempted his jutsu again. "Ice Style: Ice Molding Jutsu!" He created the sword and slashed at the tree.

And it went straight through. The tree fell down. Tōshirō gaped.

"And that's it." Kakashi grinned beneath his mask. "Well, if you'll excuse me, Tōshirō-kun, I've got a team to train. Ja."

And he walked away, dodging trees while reading that book of his.

Tōshirō looked at the fallen tree, and then Kakashi's retreating form.

_What a strange man._

* * *

While he was walking home from that training, he couldn't help but walk with a hop to his step as he made his way back to his apartment, content with the progress he had made today. He whistled happily to himself and felt that perhaps today, nothing could go wrong.

He bumped into Haruno Sakura.

She fell to the ground, and Tōshirō offered to help her up. Gratefully taking his hand, she stood, and started conversation.

"Oh, Tōshirō-kun! I haven't seen you in a while."

She must have gotten lucky with Sasuke to be this happy. He filtered that information into the back of his mind.

"I just got back from a mission to wave actually."

"Oh?" She asked, eyeing him, "Is that where you got that sword? What's with the chain?"

"The chain's helpful sometimes." He commented, remembering the incident with the two rogue samurai.

"I see how, yeah."

He turned the conversation. "How's it going for you, then? You're with Kiba and Sasuke, right? How are they?"

She huffed. "Kiba's an annoying jerk who won't leave Sasuke-kun alone. He says that he can take him but every day at sparring Sasuke-kun just wipes the floor with him. You know, Sasuke's gotten really strong now. He says he wants to fight you."

Tōshirō rolled his eyes. "I guess he's still sore when I beat him that first time. I hope I've gotten stronger as well from training. I don't think I would have gotten back from the mission otherwise, mind."

Sakura tilted her head. "What did you have to do?"

"Well…" He began. "In a nutshell, we had to escort a bridge builder to his home. But we encountered trouble on the way because he lied." Sakura gasped. "And we had to take down an A-Rank missing ninja. I'll admit, Sensei did most of the work, but we pulled through."

He proceeded to tell her the rest of the mission, leaving out the unsavory details of the things relating to the Shinigami and Hyōrinmaru and eventually made it to the end of his story.

"Wow. That's a pretty tough sounding thing. Good thing you're okay." She said sympathetically. "But with Sasuke on your side, I don't think Shino would have gotten knocked out like that."

Tōshirō blinked. Did she just say that? He ignored it. "Well, It's good to see you." He said somewhat honestly. She wasn't really a banshee anymore actually. "But I have to run home and get some stuff done. Perhaps we'll meet again."

She nodded, and then they heard a yell. "Oi! Lemme go!"

They both made their way to the scene of the fight. A much taller boy was holding onto – was that the Hokage's grandson? – by his scarf and picking on him. There was an older girl behind him seemingly ignoring the situation. But the most disturbing thing was that they were Sand ninja, or so said their headbands.

"Good grief." Tōshirō said, walking up to the boys. "Do I need to remind you that you're in Konoha, Suna nin? Are you here for the Chūnin Exams or what?"

"Heh. As if I'll tell you. You're just another brat like he is." The boy said confidently. At that moment, a rock chose to pelt him alongside the head. The boy looked to see none other than Sasuke Uchiha standing there in a tree.

"Put the boy down." He spoke levelly. In an attempted show of intimidation he gripped another rock and crushed it into powder. Tōshirō rolled his eyes. Any ninja worth his salt could do that.

The sand ninja growled. "You wanna make that a fight, pretty boy?" He fingered the wrapped up object on his back.

The girl spoke. "Kankurō, are you really going to use the Crow?"

"These guys deserve it." He said smugly. Sasuke jumped down from the tree, pulling a kunai. Kankurō also obtained one. They jumped to the side and began to charge…

Only to be intercepted. Tōshirō, with Hyōrinmaru down, stood between them, blocking both kunai with his sword. "Put your kunai away. We are in a public road. You aren't allowed to fight here."

Sasuke pulled up his kunai. "Heh. Talking big, huh? You couldn't stand a chance against me, Hitsugaya."

"Uchiha. You graduated from the Academy in second place. Should I remind you who is the Rookie of the Year and has beaten you in a fight once already?" He looked at Kankurō. "And you. A Sand nin attacking a Konoha nin on their own turf. If you carry this mentality throughout the exams you will definitely fail."

"Rrgh! I don't need a little albino rat telling me what I should do!"

They heard another voice. "Kankurō. Stop this." All eyes turned to the same tree that Sasuke had come out of. There stood another boy. He had red hair and no eyebrows. His eyes were a murky cyan. But what really intimidated Tōshirō was the look on his face.

This boy wasn't messing around.

He landed on the road softly, despite the huge peanut-shaped gourd and growled. "If you act like this again, I'll kill you."

Frightening.

"You." Sasuke spoke. "What's your name?"

"Me?" The girl blushed.

"No, him." He said, indicating the redhead.

"Sabaku no Gaara." He turned to Tōshirō. "What is your name?"

"Hitsugaya Tōshirō."

Gaara nodded. "I already know your name, Uchiha." He then smirked. "I'll have a good fight at the exams. Come Temari, Kankurō." The trio made their exit down the road.

Sasuke looked at Tōshirō. "In the exams… I'll prove to you who's the strongest now."

"You'll get your fight, Sasuke." Tōshirō said. "Excuse me Sakura, I have to go now. Have a good day."

He began to walk toward his apartment, hearing a "You too."

* * *

Shino listened with rapt attention as his father explained about the nature of the bug they were studying.

Over the course until the exams, they would breed Shino's hive into a more offensive type but at the same time keep the chakra drain abilities intact. This was a tall order, as the Aburame Clan had never attempted this before, but Shino had requested an honest effort in the making of them. His father understood, and allowed Shino to conduct his own experiments, under his supervision of course.

"Father, so I must introduce the hornets later in the experiment?"

Shibi nodded almost invisibly. "Yes. That will produce the best results. I understand that you wish to take this as quickly as possible, but these projects must be done with great caution. Do you realize this?"

"Yes Father. I know."

"Good. You may introduce the more poisonous types now, but be careful to make sure that they are trained to not bite you."

"Of course."

Shibi nodded, then stood up. "I must attend clan matters right now. Good day, Shino."

"Good day, Father."

Shino was left by himself in the room.

* * *

Tōshirō made sure a towel was folded and ready before he took his shower for tonight. He stepped into the bathroom, and, after removing his haori and shirt, looked at his arm.

The scars from that Hollow's acid were already healing nicely. He smiled at that. They were still there, and probably always would be, but they weren't an angry red like before. Of course, they were still sensitive, so he would have to watch out for that.

He thought about those Sand ninja as he stepped into the shower. Temari and Kankurō were good and all, but the one he was most concerned with was Gaara. They all seemed to fear him. And rightfully so, considering the boy had a chakra presence larger than the Hokage Monument.

He just seemed… off… There was no way to better describe it. He had an evil aura surrounding him. It was unreal.

Tōshirō then thought about Sasuke. That boy needed help. Sasuke was a problematic person, and seemed very bitter over the loss of the Rookie of the Year title. Of course, Tōshirō himself hadn't thought about it until he brought it up against him in order to cow him. Tōshirō knew that he would help the boy in any way if he needed it, but his pride was too great for him to let that happen.

And then there was Sakura. She was one of the most interesting of them all. At first, Tōshirō was almost convinced that she had let go of her infatuation with Sasuke after being with him on a team for a while. That didn't happen.

He stepped out of the shower and wrapped a towel around himself, turning the water off. He dried himself off, and then, instead of wearing his normal outfit, wore instead, a pair of black slacks and, not caring who would see his arms any more, a sleeveless shirt with a dragon stitched onto the back.

Tōshirō found the irony of that hilarious.

He went out to take a walk in the night air and made sure that he had Hyōrinmaru strapped to his back before going out. Just in case another foreign nin attacked.

* * *

Shikamaru sighed. And groaned. And spoke the word "troublesome."

Many times in a row.

He was being trained into the ground here instead of watching clouds.

What an injustice.

Asuma put his hands on his hips. "Alright Shikamaru. Look here." The boy did a good "kill me now" look. "You can't get stronger if you don't put any effort into it. You're a smart lad, but you still need to have some power to back it up."

Shikamaru sighed and got into a ready stance with his trench knives again.

"Perfect. Show me your skills now." Shikamaru channeled his mysterious chakra element into his blades and went for Asuma, who dodged. "I'm gonna go hard on you. Don't get your blades chopped up." He channeled wind in his knives and sliced at Shikamaru. The boy, reflexively blocking, put his knife up, and…

Asuma's blade went right through the knife.

They stopped. "Well…" Shikamaru began… "That was strange."

Asuma frowned. "Okay, Shika. Here, slice my arm. I want to see if your knives go through me.

He did so, and watched as Asuma now had a nice hole in his arm.

Shikamaru suddenly realized it. "This may be it," He said, "My chakra element must be Shadow. My clan is famous for its shadow jutsu. Maybe that must be it."

Asuma shook his head. "There isn't an element called Shadow. Your father is an Earth element. There is just now way."

Shikamaru grinned. "Maybe I'm the first."

* * *

Tōshirō took in a breath at the air. It tasted quite nice, and it was getting kind of dark, so he decided to go eat something. He didn't want to go back to his apartment, instead, preferring to stay out, and so he made his way to the first source of food he could think of.

The Ichiraku's ice cream stand.

He sat on one of the stools and smiled as Ayame noticed him. "Oh, Shiro-chan! Father, Tōshirō is back!"

"Really?" Could be heard behind the wall.

Ayame yelled back, "Yes!" She then spoke to him. "So, Shiro-chan. What'll it be?"

He smirked. "The usual. Mint Chocolate-chip, please."

She nodded. "And for you, sir?"

Tōshirō hadn't noticed someone sit next to him, so when he did see him, he jumped.

"Just a vanilla please."

Ayame nodded and went into the back to fetch some ice cream. The man looked at Tōshirō and smiled. "Nice sword you got there, kid. What's your name?"

"Hitsugaya Tōshirō." He said. "And you?"

The man coughed a little, then said, "I'm Gekkō Hayate. The only Jōnin in this village who focuses primarily in swordplay."

Tōshirō's eyes widened. "You use swords too? That's pretty cool."

"Mmhm." Hayate smiled. "Tell you what. After we're done here, show me what you can do with the sword. You're one of Sarutobi's students, right? I think I could help you a bit before you go into the Chūnin exams."

Tōshirō nodded, and ate his ice cream as it came. Swordplay was important to him, and it was nice to see that someone was willing to teach him more things.

* * *

Indeed, Tōshirō did prove his worth to Hayate, and the two had begun to train with each other. Although the Jōnin wasn't so keen on letting his Shadow Leaf dance get out, he did show Tōshirō some other moves, such as Midnight Tornado and Avalanche. But Hayate was getting stressed, because Tōshirō was learning these things incredibly fast. Soon, the Shadow Leaf dance would be all that there was to show him.

The boy made good use of incorporating that chain on his blade to its fullest effect. Many times while sparring Hayate found himself caught and would lose his balance. The crescent moon blade on the chain didn't help either.

But he had said that blood was allowed in their spars, just not too much.

Meanwhile, Shino had finally finished his experiments with his hive, and had introduced the new insects to his body to no ill effect. They were known as the Chakra Hornets, and were quite poisonous. A few stings and an opponent would be out like a light.

Shikamaru grinned as he stared down Asuma. The bearded Jōnin knew of his other students' progress by what the Jōnin were telling him, but Shikamaru had made some leaps and bounds.

He wore a black duster coat and had many knives hidden in there. True, he still was a lazy bum but he was a competent lazy bum now.

Once they had discovered his shadow element, they made sure to find out everything that could be done with it. Unfortunately, for now, Shikamaru's blades were the only things that would remain intangible, but he himself could actually walk into shadows and merge with them. It was a deadly technique, and made him the perfect assassin.

So that was what Asuma dealt with, and said Jōnin was currently looking around warily for his student. He made sure to keep his body facing away from the sun, so his own shadow was in front of him, and to keep his knives out at all times. But Shikamaru would soon strike, and in such a forested area, any direction was possible. He parried a sudden attack from Shikamaru's trench knives as the boy came. He tipped him over and stood on his back, grabbing his wrists. "Yield."

"I yield, Sensei."

Asuma let go of him and Shikamaru walked toward the log where his teammates sat, impressed. "Alright, so you now know all of your teammates' moves. That's integral when it comes to working in a team. I'm very impressed.

Shino buzzed. "So, sensei, what is the verdict?" He wore his standard white trench coat, and the only significant differences to his attire were the goggles on his face instead of sunglasses and the fact that his coat was slightly open, revealing his mouth.

"Yeah." Tōshirō joined in, "Chūnin exams?" He had dropped the haori entirely at Hayate's suggestion and instead wore a custom tailored sleeveless trench coat with the dragon stitched onto the back. They all had also gotten their ears pierced as a show of team bonding.

"Well," Asuma said. "You're in! Just fill out these papers and we're good." He handed them the yellow slips, and each Genin was excited in their own way at the chance to promote.

_

* * *

Super blazing ultra fast writing jutsu GO!_

_Since I am a sucker for reviews, I guess that I had more motivation to write the story. That and the entire plot attacked me this morning._

_I still have the marks._

_Well, other than that, I feel that this chapter turned out better than the last. A little blank between the Chūnin exams and Wave was just what the doctor ordered._

_But wait! What about Haku?_

_Well, folks you'll figure that out yourself sometime later._

_I chose not to include the scene where they leave Wave because, really, there was nothing important at all about that. In the canon series, they never see Tazuna and co. ever again despite saying so. That was sort of like a filler to be honest._

_Oh, and before I forget, you guys will have to thank me for the super plot spoiler at the top of the chapter. What, you didn't read it? Go read it!_

_Groundbreaking, huh? _

_...hee hee._

_Well, that's all I guess. So until chapter five, see ya!_

_(Chapter five? It happens?)_


	5. The Chūnin Exams!

Tōshirō sat silently at the area where he waited for his team to appear. He was early, but he couldn't get back to sleep after waking up, so he simply sat here and waited, drawing things that would ever draw his attention. He had just cleaned Hyōrinmaru, so the sword was on his lap gleaming and looking sharp.

Shino showed up soon after, sitting on the bench beside Tōshirō. He said nothing, only nodded to send his greeting to the other boy. Tōshirō nodded back, and the two sat in silence.

Shikamaru had arrived at the last possible moment, scaring Tōshirō to death by popping up from the bench's shadow. The ponytailed boy was still excited about that particular ability, and he used it often.

"So Tōshirō, how's it been?" He asked. The three were all together, so they stood up and made their way into the academy.

"Didn't get much sleep." Tōshirō commented, putting Hyōrinmaru in his sheath, "But I feel wide awake now. What about you, Shino? Are you ready?"

The bug user nodded, "I will put in my best effort."

They made their way to the front of room 301, where they were due to meet their proctor, but something was off. There was a crowd of other Genin in front of the door, being blockaded by two troublemaking Chūnin.

Tōshirō scowled. "Those Chūnin…! What are they doing!" He marched off to teach them a lesson, but was pulled backward by Shikamaru.

"Tōshirō, wait." He lowered his voice. "Troublesome. We're on the second floor. They've probably got a Genjutsu on the sign that says 301. Actually, look a couple rooms down the hall. See that, 207. We're on the wrong floor."

He blinked. "Oh. Well then,"

Shino was already making his way up the stairs, so the other two dodged the crowd and went up to him. Tōshirō spared a look backward and noticed that something was happening. He saw Sasuke down there, and then the illusion faded.

Tōshirō blinked. Did Sasuke just allow that crowd into the exams? Whatever. He caught up with his team members and stopped in front of the door to room 301. The team saw Asuma there.

"Hey, Asuma-sensei? What are you doing here?" Shikamaru asked.

"Oh," Asuma spoke, "I didn't think you'd get here so early. I'm here to collect your forms. You did fill them out, didn't you?"

They nodded. Tōshirō pulled his out of his breast pocket and handed it to Asuma, who looked it over. The others handed in their forms and got them checked off.

"Alright. You're good to go." Asuma grinned. "Good luck! Come back as Chūnin."

**

* * *

Fire And Ice**

**Written by Obsidian Fireheart**

**Chapter 5 – The Chūnin Exams!**

* * *

They nodded and entered the room. Immediately they noticed the tension. It was so thick that it could be cut with a knife. People were glancing warily at others and keeping mostly to themselves, keeping the volume level down low. Shikamaru didn't like anyone here, but the ones that put him most on edge were the ones with the music note symbols on their forehead protectors.

"I didn't know that there would be any Oto nin here…" He muttered.

Shino nodded his assent. "My allies sense something disturbing about the redheaded one from Suna."

"You don't have to be a bug to sense that." Tōshirō said, "I encountered him a while ago, and he kind of left an impression. Even his teammates are scared of him, but I don't know why."

The door opened and everyone turned to face the newcomers. They were people they knew: Inuzuka Kiba, Haruno Sakura, and unfortunately, Sasuke himself.

"Troublesome." Tōshirō sighed.

"Took the words right out of my mouth." Shikamaru sighed with him.

Shino looked at Tōshirō and Shikamaru. "… Has Sasuke done anything to warrant this?"

Tōshirō frowned. "Once he finds me."

Looking over the crowd of people, Kiba pointed at them. "Me and Akamaru are gonna kick all of your asses!" Out of the fluffy collar of his jacket popped Akamaru, who yipped in response.

Sakura facepalmed. She then noticed Asuma's students and smiled pleasantly. "Oh, Tōshirō-kun, Shino-kun, Shikamaru-kun! You're here too?"

Sasuke's gaze zeroed in on Tōshirō in a menacing glare. The white haired boy pretended that he didn't notice.

"I'm doing well." Shino said.

"Eh… So-so." Shikamaru said after. "I'm feeling a little weighed down right now, seeing all these people, but…"

Tōshirō cut in, "We'll survive."

"…" Shikamaru looked at Tōshirō. "Troublesome."

After a while of small talk inside the group, another team entered. Tōshirō looked at them and recognized them. Hyūga Hinata, Yamanaka Ino, and Akimichi Chōji.

Chōji recognized Shikamaru immediately and made haste to speak with him. "Hey, Shika! Haven't seen you in a while. You look different."

"It's such a drag…" He muttered. "Having to carry all of this stuff around."

"Oh," Tōshirō spoke. "Hello, Chōji, Ino, Hinata. How have you all been?"

Hinata seemed to wilt. "G-good day Tōshirō-kun. Kurenai-sensei h-has been teaching us w-well."

"Ugh. Hinata, you shouldn't stutter. It makes us look bad." Ino reprimanded. "Anyways. We've been doing fine. Who else is here?" She looked around.

"Sasuke's team is here." Shikamaru said. He realized what he said that moment, and simply decided that it would be too troublesome to do anything about it.

"Sasuke's here?" She spotted him. "Sasuke-kun!"

As she ran off, he sighed. "Troublesome loud woman."

Chōji smiled awkwardly. "She is kind of…"

"I feel for you, man." Shikamaru said. "My teammates aren't troublesome, thankfully."

"Oi," They heard, "Aren't you being a little loud."

The three groups turned to face the newcomer. He was much older than them, maybe around 19 or so. He had long gray hair tied up in a ponytail save for his bangs, which fell to either side of his face. None of the other Konoha Genin recognized him, but he had a leaf symbol on his forehead.

"Who are you…?" Shikamaru asked.

He smiled reassuringly. "Me? I'm Yakushi Kabuto." He indicated the other contestants. "And they don't look happy to see you right now."

Tōshirō scoffed. The others of the Rookie Nine had come to see what was going on also.

"They do look kind of intimidating." Chōji said meekly.

"Hang on," The silver haired one said. "Don't give up hope yet. I may be able to help you kids out a little… with my ninja info cards."

"What the heck are those?" Sakura asked, frowning thoughtfully.

Kabuto grinned. "Okay, these are pretty cool. I have chakra engraved images of all of the information that I could get on the contestants of the exams here." He pressed chakra into one. A three dimensional bar chart appeared on it, put over a map of the elemental countries. There was one bar per country, with Konoha's being the highest. "This chart represents the number of participants in these Chūnin exams based on their home country. Konoha, unsurprisingly, has the most. But some minor villages have joined also, even that new village Oto."

Kabuto shuffled his deck, putting the card back in. "But that's enough on that topic. Is there anyone in particular you want to know about?"

"You have cards on individuals?" Shikamaru asked. Something about that seemed fishy.

Kabuto nodded. "As much information as I could find."

Tōshirō spoke up. "How about Sabaku no Gaara?"

"Oh you know his name?" Kabuto quipped, "That makes it too easy." He searched through several cards before coming to one and putting it on the floor before them. "Sabaku no Gaara. Genin of Suna. Twelve years old. His individual stats are unknown. Mission completion… wow! He did a B-Rank mission? And it says here that he did them all without a scratch. That's impressive."

Sasuke chimed in next. "What about Rock Lee and Hitsugaya Tōshirō, both of Konoha?"

Kabuto smiled. "Well…" He drew two cards from his deck, pressing chakra on the first one he drew. "Rock Lee. Genin of Konoha. Thirteen years old. His Ninjutsu and Genjutsu are abysmal, nonexistent even, but look at that Taijutsu! Wow, we have some impressive ones this time. He's gotten an average amount of missions in for a Genin his age.

"And Hitsugaya Tōshirō. Genin of Konoha. Twelve years old. His Genjutsu and Taijutsu are just average, the latter a little above. His Ninjutsu's pretty good though. I'm not really sure what would make him threatening… Oh, look at that, a side note." He looked up at Tōshirō. "Yeah, I guess it's obvious he specializes in Kenjutsu. Well then… Mission count. Many, many D ranks and an A rank. Oh, now that's pretty good."

Shikamaru looked at Shino as he said this, and the bug user nodded. Tōshirō seemed to be looking at Kabuto weirdly also. Apparently he wasn't the only one who thought there was something wrong here.

But the sound of footsteps got everyone's attention. One of the Oto nin from before had gotten up and moved toward Kabuto. The fluffy mummy threw a punch at the bespectacled teen, who dodged easily. But something happened there. Kabuto's glasses shattered and the boy was left vomiting on the floor. The crowd was in an uproar over this and yelling about this and that when a cloud of smoke erupted over the scene.

"Quiet, maggots!" When the smoke cleared, there stood an impressive looking man who wore a black bandanna on his head. He also was dressed in a similar trench coat to Shikamaru, but no more than that could be discerned. "Kinuta Dosu! What is it that drove you to attack so immaturely?"

"Eh…" The boy thought. "Jumpy nerves."

"Any more fighting without my say-so gets your team thrown out of the exams! Clear? Now grab a number from me and get your ass to that seat!" He ordered.

They all got their numbers and Tōshirō found himself next to Hinata. The girl squeaked meekly and looked away.

She had a shyness problem, he decided.

"Alright! I am Morino Ibiki! Welcome to Hell, I will be your first guide." Ibiki called. The Chūnin who had taken seats along the sides of the rooms began to hand out papers. "Now, for the rules of the first exam! This will be a written test. Each participant will start with ten points. At the end of the test, when a question is answered incorrectly, a point will be subtracted from the total. If one cheats during the test, two points will be deducted from their total. Anyone with zero points will get their entire team thrown out." He smirked darkly. "So don't try me."

They all nodded, looking at their papers.

"No questions? Go!"

People could be heard furiously writing their names before stopping. Tōshirō grimaced. These were some difficult questions. He looked at the first question and could barely think of what it could mean.

He sat there for five minutes pondering the question until he felt something poke him from under the seat. He noticed a paper there, with the Shikamaru's hand coming from beneath the desk. Tōshirō traded papers with him and the hand withdrew. He looked over the answers that his teammate had written and couldn't help but nod to himself.

Shikamaru was a clever, clever person.

He hastily rubbed out Shikamaru's name and put his own before flipping the paper and doodling on the back.

Shino nodded as his hornets returned to him the information that he was supposed to get. He had figured out the meaning of the test before Ibiki had finished speaking, and had his allies return information effectively.

The first part of the test was over quickly, and Tōshirō had only half finished his shading of the dragon doodle when Ibiki announced that he would give the tenth question.

"But first…" He drew it out, "You must pick if you want to take the tenth question." He smirked.

The Suna girl – Temari, Tōshirō remembered – stood up and yelled. "What kind of question is that?"

"I'll explain better," Ibiki started again, "You can choose whether or not you want to take the tenth question. If you don't, you and your team will fail the exams. But if you do, and you answer the question incorrectly, then you will be banned from taking the Chūnin exams ever again!"

The room burst into uproar. Ibiki grinned at this.

"You can't get this past the other countries!" He heard a person yell.

"Oh yeah? Are you willing to risk your chance at promotion on that statement?"

Eventually the room quieted down and people started to resign. Many hands went up in the air, stating that they wanted out, and Ibiki had Chūnin escort them away.

"Any more?" He asked.

Hinata was debating inwardly with herself. She couldn't take this sort of pressure. She didn't want to continue and risk her team's chance at promotion, but she didn't want to disappoint her team either. She didn't know what to do, so she took the path of less evil. Her hand began to make its way up into the air…

Only to be pressed back onto the table. Tōshirō fixated a look of determination into her eyes. He then smiled reassuringly. "You can do this Hinata. Don't give up, your team believes in you."

She took in a startled breath, but nodded resolutely. She wouldn't fail. She would do her team and her clan proud.

After seeing no more people backing out, Ibiki ended the charade. "Alright ladies, you pass."

"What?" So went the collective thought throughout the room.

"You win." Ibiki shrugged. "Being a Chūnin is all about taking the risks. Say you are to go on a mission, but you have no idea of the statistics. There could be any number of enemies, and traps could be everywhere. Can you save your comrades? Can you save yourself? If you are handed a mission like that by your superior, can you back out? No! There is no quitting. Not anymore. If you want to go anywhere as a ninja, you must learn that you cannot relinquish your grip. Ever!"

"So what was the point of the test then?" Kiba asked.

"Ah, good question." Ibiki took off his bandanna, revealing his messily scarred up head for the world to see. "Information is a precious thing. It wins more wars than swords and jutsu do. People will do anything to get their hands on it. That test tested your ability to gather information without being caught. So, since this is the end, I suppose I should tell you that–"

He didn't get a chance to finish. A large black ball careened through the window, setting off several fireworks in between. When the smoke cleared, there stood a massive banner with the words printed upon it, "Mitarashi Anko! Sexy and Single! Proctor for the Second Exam!"

"Alright maggots! This is no time to be celebrating! I am the proctor for the Second Test, Mitarashi Anko! Now, let's go, follow me!" She thrust her hand up into the air.

"Bad timing…" Ibiki said, coming from behind the banner.

She turned to Ibiki. "Seventy-eight? Ibiki, you left twenty-six teams? The test was way too easy this time!"

Ibiki smiled wryly. "I suppose that we have an exceptional bunch this year."

"Bah. Whatever. I'll cut the number at least in half by the time the second test is over."

Shikamaru frowned. _Cut us… at least in half? Can we make it?_

Anko chuckled chillingly. "Ah… now I'm getting excited. I'll explain everything at the site. Follow me."

* * *

Ibiki sorted through the classroom silently after everyone had left, looking at the papers. He came upon a certain piece of paper and chuckled.

"A shuriken can be fired from angle A at… troublesome, I already did this." Ibiki read aloud. He smirked.

Shikamaru Nara was certainly an interesting person.

* * *

They arrived at the new location, and were immediately impressed by the size of those trees. The entire area was barred off from regular entrance, and Anko seemed to gaze at it lovingly.

"Welcome to the scene of the second test." She spoke, "Training ground 44. Also known as the Forest of Death." She paused for dramatic silence to ensue. It didn't.

"The 'Forest of Death?'" Tōshirō quipped. "Doesn't look that scary."

Anko suddenly looked in his direction, launching a kunai. Tōshirō had no time to dodge, so it sliced his cheek. She appeared next to him.

"Cocky kids like you get killed the fastest." She purred, licking the blood off of his cheek. "Spraying more of that red, red blood that I love so much." She looked at the wounds on his arms, which now looked like gashes. "Acid jutsu sucks, doesn't it?"

"Here's your kunai." A Genin with a large conical hat handed Anko back her kunai… with her tongue. Tōshirō was a little more than weirded out by that.

"Why thank you!" She chirped, suddenly becoming cheerful again. "But don't sneak up on me, you know…? Unless you want to die, that is."

"I was excited at the sight of blood." She said simply. "That and you cut my precious hair."

Shino frowned. _Disturbing. I find it difficult to imagine how people frown upon me when these sort of things exist._

Shikamaru grimaced. _What's with the examiner… and that Genin from Kusa? This is getting really troublesome._

The Grass Genin's tongue went back into her mouth with a "shlurp!" and Tōshirō quivered at the noise, before Anko returned to her place in front of the crowd, saying, "Looks like we have a lot of bloodthirsty ones here."

Tōshirō smirked dryly. _Hypocrite._

Anko sighed. "Alrighty then. Before we start, I have to hand out some forms just for you. You guys have to sign them before you go into the forest, 'cause it's not our fault if you get killed."

Their eyes widened at that. She was serious.

Tōshirō took the form and signed it immediately, along with everyone else there. He started playing with the chain dangling from his hip, indicating his excitement.

"You okay?" Shikamaru asked.

Tōshirō nodded. "I'm just excited. I have no idea, but the prospect of this makes my blood boil."

"Hmm." That was strange. Shikamaru thought. He never noticed, but then saw that Tōshirō always got rather excited before a fight.

Shino said nothing, returning after going to the service counter to turn in their forms. He carried a brown scroll."

"Alright ladies!" Anko stood atop a massive rock. She held two scrolls up in the air. One was brown, like theirs, the other was blue. "I'm sure you all have one of these? These are the Heaven and Earth scrolls. To pass this exam, you need to get to the tower in the center with both scrolls. That means that there will be fighting."

"Ah…" Tōshirō muttered. "That's what she meant by cutting in half."

"You may not open the scrolls! If you do, you will get a nasty surprise. Be trustworthy! You have five days to make it to the tower! Your team must be complete to pass this exam."

Everyone nodded.

"Alright… and, go!" The doors flung open.

"Well, let's get a move on." Tōshirō said cheerfully. Team Asuma moved into the forest.

* * *

"There's absolutely nothing there." Tōshirō commented. "Kind of boring actually."

Shikamaru frowned. "We need to find somebody so we can take their scroll."

"Unfortunately," Shino responded, "My allies cannot see anyone nearby."

"Shame." Shikamaru stalked forward and stuck his head into the a shadow cast on a tree. "This place is well shadowed, so I guess scouting could be easy."

Tōshirō blinked. "That is so weird."

Shikamaru's head popped back out and he shook it, regaining his orientation. "No one's around."

Shino chimed in. "Let us start searching faster then."

They all nodded, and scaled into the tree branches, hopping around the forest in a much faster pace. They stopped later when they saw another team at rest, Ame nin if they read the headbands correctly, and wondered how to engage.

Shikamaru crouched; his hands in his classic thinking pose. "I could take one out from the shadows relatively easy, but that would attract the attention of the others."

Shino frowned. "Could you do that without hesitating?"

Shikamaru sighed. "We'll see what happens."

Tōshirō smirked. "When you do that, after you take the one out, when the others get confused, I'll show up on the scene while you get back in the shadows and hopefully take some more out. Shino could support me with his hornets."

Shino nodded. "That sounds acceptable."

"Let's go." Shikamaru vanished. Moments later, one of the Ame nin found a knife through their neck. "Sorry, but I can't let you live."

"Well played, Shika." Tōshirō said beneath his breath before showing up on the scene. He let loose the chain on his arm and swung the crescent moon blade around like a flail. "Let's dance."

"You…!" The female of the team roared. "I'll kill you!"

She put her hands together for a water jutsu, that much Tōshirō knew, and he dodged as a Water Bullet came soaring his direction. He smirked. "Watch this. Ice Style: Snow Wolf!"

The Water Bullet froze and morphed, becoming canine in shape, and charging after the Ame nin. Shino had moved to intercept the other one of that team, and he was holding his own quite well.

The girl dodged his Wolf, but froze when she saw Tōshirō's face.

"Ice Style: Senbon Fireworks."

The Wolf exploded. She found herself covered in icy senbon all over her left side.

Tōshirō smiled. He'd have to thank Haku for that one.

The girl scowled and launched her own senbon at Tōshirō. He dodged to the right and took a hit from her follow up. "Damn!"

"Hah," She grinned. Then, she found her leg wrapped in a chain, and as Tōshirō pulled, she fell with a yelp. Tōshirō immediately leapt for her and knocked her out with the back of Hyōrinmaru.

He looked at his teammate and saw that the two of them were both in trouble. There was a much larger boy holding a large axe, forcing his two teammates to stay back. Tōshirō ran toward the furious berserker and entered with a flying kick, hitting him in the side of the head.

Shikamaru grinned at his entrance and sunk into the shadows quickly. Shino nodded and readied his hornets. Tōshirō picked up the massive axe, the heavy thing, and tossed it across the arena.

"Timeout." He said. Shikamaru had a knife at his neck, Hyōrinmaru was pointed at his hands, and Shino's insects were buzzing all around him. "Which one of you has the scroll?"

He whimpered. "H-he does…" Tōshirō nodded and Shino went to check out the body of the one Shikamaru killed at the beginning. After a while Shino pulled out another brown scroll.

"Dang," Shikamaru, for good measure, knocked the guy they were pinning down out and quickly looked through his stuff to see if he had another. Seeing that he didn't, he sighed. "Well, let's take that scroll and perhaps use it as a bargaining chip." He suggested. The others nodded.

"Alright… let's go."

They traveled through the forest in a quicker pace than before, scouting for scrolls. True, it had been only a few hours out of the five days they were given to duke it out here, but everyone could agree that they wanted to get out of the forest as fast as they could.

But still, nothing happened of interest, so they decided to make camp for the night. The trio each took scrolls out of their pockets which, when unsealed, contained their provisions.

Tōshirō smirked. "Thanks for the idea, Shino. I don't have to lug a backpack around now."

The ponytailed boy grinned. "I thought there might be a survival exercise. Good thing I was right."

Tents were too conspicuous to sleep in, but they had brought things like rations and first aid tools. Shikamaru started a fire with a small jutsu meant for camping and instructed to Tōshirō, "Rations are good and all, but let's have some fish. You think you could catch some for us?"

He nodded. Tōshirō was the designated fish-catcher of the team, since he could use his ice to catch them unsuspecting, and thus they wouldn't slip away. Since they had parked so close to a river, it took him five minutes, and he came back holding three rather large, not quite thawed fish. They stuck sticks through them and put them over the fire, letting them roast.

Shikamaru took the initiative. They had made a habit of reviewing the day through long term missions, they did this after practice exercises before, to see what progress had been made and compare it to what they still had to do. It was effective, and the team made sure to get in the habit of reviewing the day after every day in the field. "So, what progress have we made?"

Shino pulled his scroll out. "We have one additional Earth Scroll. One more Heaven Scroll is still required."

Shikamaru nodded. "How can we get this Heaven scroll…?"

Shino spoke. "We can target an unsuspecting weak team."

"Or we can lure a team near the water." Tōshirō said. "That's where I'm strongest."

"That might not guarantee a win though." Shikamaru countered. "Say we lure Kiri nin there… We'd be decimated."

"True." He nodded.

"Well, let's get some sleep then. We'll come up with a plan tomorrow. Shino, set up your usual watch."

The bug user nodded. His bugs scattered from his coat and took places among the woods to hide and watch. They would wake him if anything would happen overnight.

"Alright." Tōshirō sat against a tree. "Night."

The others got into their own places, falling asleep quickly.

* * *

Morning came too fast as Tōshirō was called awake. But then, as he noticed, it wasn't really morning. Shino had woken Shikamaru and told him to wake the sword user, as his bugs had found something.

He stood and stretched, wondering what was going on.

"A team has camped near us." Shino spoke. "They don't appear to be taking watch; we may be able to get them."

Shikamaru nodded. "Good job, Shino. Let's go!"

The three nodded, and as Shino's hornets retreated into his coat, they took off. It wasn't very long until they made it to their camp. The fire was producing way too much smoke, they seemed to all be using sleeping bags, and they all were conveniently sleeping beneath the covers.

"Something's not right…" Shikamaru muttered.

"Definitely." Tōshirō spoke. He threw a kunai made of ice into one of the bags and it exploded in a burst of flame.

"They're booby trapped." Shikamaru growled. "Well, they almost had us I guess. Let's activate the other ones so they don't get in the way." He tossed kunai at them and watched them blow up before scanning the trees.

The world seemed to tip upside down, and he fell over. He managed a look to see that his other friends were in the same state. He noticed something happening, someone was approaching, but he was too dizzy to tell. He felt like throwing up, but for some reason, it wouldn't happen.

It hit him. Genjutsu!

He put his hand in a seal and yelled the release, dispelling the jutsu. The others, who had heard him, did the same, and they were free of it.

"Your plan sucked balls, Genji. Your jutsu didn't even work on them." A Kumo-nin with a large cloak spoke to his much shorter teammate. He was huge, carrying a large axe, much like the one from the Ame team, and he had a deep growling voice.

"Sorry 'bout that, Shogu…" Genji said, rubbing the back of his head. He was a stereotypical Genjutsu user. Thin, sleek, and armed with many, many pointy things. "Should we just hack away at them?"

"Might as well." The until silent one spoke. He had long red hair, electric yellow eyes, and an impassive expression. He carried a lance on his back, a rare weapon for a ninja, and wore a massive furry cloak.

"Hah! Good choice, Zane." Shogu yelled, brandishing his axe and moving to slice Shikamaru. Seeing no time to move – that axe user was way faster than the other one – he fell through the axe's shadow. "What?"

Shino moved toward Genji with good speed, his hornets surrounding the boy. The Kumo nin panicked. "Oh, I just hate bugs." And he then used a jutsu. "Lightning Style, Shockwave Cloak."

The hornets only barely moved away in time, dodging the stream of static electricity that came from the boy. "Good move." Shino commented, "I shall show you mine."

The hornets that drew ever closer to Genji were buzzing loudly. Louder, louder, and louder. The Genjutsu user became a little disconcerted by the noise, and eventually, he began to feel sick.

"This is my Hornet Sonic Radiation Jutsu." He supplied. "And this is no Genjutsu."

The boy began to grow worse and worse until he was just tired of it all and called. "Lightning Style: Snail Node Jutsu!" He extended his arms to the sides and the insects in the general area in which he was pointing them were all fried by homing bolts from his fingertips.

Shino frowned.

Genji, once done with the jutsu, moved through the cloud of insects to attack Shino directly, delivering a harsh kick in the stomach, only to be met with more of the hornets.

"Where are you looking?" Shino asked from behind him. Genji turned to look but was met with an elbow to the face, sending him to the ground. The hornets began to fly all over him and stick to his body as Shino called, "Parasitic Insects Jutsu!"

Genji found himself stripped of chakra from the ravenous insects. He tried to get up, but couldn't, finding himself facing chakra exhaustion. He fell unconscious, his body unable to support him anymore.

"It's been a while since you've had a good feed, friends. I hope this makes up for it." Shino spoke to his bugs, searching his body quickly for a scroll.

* * *

Shikamaru frowned as Shogu spotted him again coming from the shadows. He had been diving up and down from the shadowy comforts of his technique to find an axe headed his way every time. How was this guy so good at guessing where he would show up? He looked like a simpleminded brute on the outside. Perhaps it was that he simply swung the mighty weapon at whatever moved?

The only problem was due to the reach of that poleaxe he had no way to get close to his enemy. He sank in the shadows again, dodging the axe for what seemed like the hundredth time. He was getting tired of this. He would act soon. An idea hit him. A jutsu that he hadn't used since the exam started showed up in his mind, and that would help him win.

He rose from the ground on a tree branch to see what the boy's fighting style was. He was literally spinning around with the huge thing, letting nothing get close to him. What a shame, he was very vulnerable to long range jutsu. Perhaps his other teammates covered that for him. He had seen Genji's Snail Node Jutsu and that looked deadly.

"Shadow Imitation Jutsu!" Shikamaru muttered; his hands in the rat seal. His shadow snaked onto the ground and caught Shogu, forcing him into the same position as Shikamaru.

Or that's what would have happened if the jutsu hadn't gone straight through him. What had happened? The answer suddenly hit him, and he made the ram seal. "Release!"

The Genjutsu faded, revealing Shogu behind him, with the massive axe in hand. Shikamaru whipped around and blocked the axe with a kunai. "Troublesome… You're the Genjutsu user?"

He smirked, chuckling. "Ain't life a bitch?"

"It's troublesome alright…" He said, sneakily maneuvering his shadow around the tree. Shogu noticed it somehow and jumped up in the air, landing heavily on the ground.

"Good try!" He yelled. "You can never sneak up on me!"

"Eh?" Shikamaru said, placing a knife to his throat. The image of Shikamaru on the tree faded. "What was that?"

"Grr…" Shogu growled. "A Clone? How did I not see that?"

Shikamaru smirked. "I don't know how your Sandaigan didn't catch that either."

Shogu's eyes widened considerably. "You know about it?"

Shikamaru sighed. "I paid attention in the Academy, despite what some people think. They went over bloodline techniques there. Sandaigan is rather famous you know. It lets you use you chakra to create a third, disconnected eye that can cast Genjutsu and see. I figured it out when you saw my shadow coming from behind you."

"You think you're so smart, don't you?"

Shikamaru smiled. "Others seem to think that as well. I am the strategist of my team for a reason." He smirked when a blade went through his neck. It didn't draw blood.

"What? But you touched me!"

Shikamaru's form melted into the floor, snaking back to its owner, who jumped off of the tree. "Your guess before was half right. It was a Clone, but its full name is Shadow Resurrection Clone Jutsu. If you actually were as all-seeing as you say, you should have noticed that I had no shadow when I attacked you on the tree. The real I was attacking from the base of the tree with my Shadow Imitation. The Shadow Resurrection Clone is made from my shadow, so it doesn't get its own." He sighed dramatically. "How troublesome."

"I'll kill you for mocking me!" He yelled, charging at Shikamaru's real body. He soon found a trench knife through his neck, courtesy from the Shikamaru behind him.

"I also can switch places with my clone at any time. It takes a bit of time to perform this bit, so it's slightly impractical, but you're so predictable it worked anyways."

Shogu spluttered blood and fell toward the ground. His last feeling was the grass touching his cheek as he fell. "Damn you…"

* * *

Tōshirō dodged the senbon thrown at him by Zane. This was getting repetitive. He couldn't draw in close because of all of the needles tossed by the redhead before him. It was insane, like fighting Haku all over again! He dodged what he could and deflected the rest with his sword, but he and his opponent could tell that his stamina wouldn't last forever.

Zane said nothing as he kept lobbing the needles at him. They were bound to hit sometime, so the only variable was time, which they had a lot of.

He noticed that both of his teammates had been defeated already and were being ransacked for scrolls. Good thing that he had them all.

Tōshirō put his hands together in seals and bending them incredibly fast, spoke. "A taste of your own medicine, Water Style: Thousand Flying Water Needles of Death Jutsu!"

Zane dodged with blinding speed and he changed his attack pattern, using his lance. Tōshirō batted away the incoming stab with Hyōrinmaru and called out a wind style jutsu, intent on beheading his weapon.

But it wouldn't come that easily. Zane maneuvered his lance around every strike. Tōshirō was growing annoyed with this. Zane smirked. "Lightning Style: Lightning Net Jutsu Part One."

He swung his lance, and all of the senbon that had been scattered around magically lifted up into the air. Tōshirō bit back a gasp of surprise and dodged as all of the senbon flew at him.

"A taste of your own medicine, actually." Zane taunted. Tōshirō growled.

"Ice Style: Snow Wolf Jutsu!" The wolf went flying at Zane, who dodged to the side just like his previous opponent had. "Ice Style: Senbon Fireworks Jutsu!"

Only this time, Zane blocked the senbon with a volley of his own, just giving him more ammo for his Lightning Net to work with. Tōshirō decided to move in close, speeding toward him and kicking with all of his might. His foot landed on the furry cloak of his. Tōshirō had never been electrocuted so thoroughly in his life.

"A- Ahh!" He screamed, falling to one knee as he was temporarily numbed.

Zane smirked. "One thing you'll learn, little Leaf, is that trash like you, always gets treated like trash." He swung his lance and all of the senbon assumed a position hovering around Tōshirō. "Lightning Style: Lightning Net Jutsu Part Two!"

Branches of lightning connected the senbon all together. There was no room for Tōshirō to be in there without getting zapped harder than he had before. But he was safe. And behind his opponent.

"What?" Zane turned around to see a panting Tōshirō.

"Shunpo… Haven't used that in a while." He frowned. "I guess I should go all out on you now." He formed a chain of seals, stopping on a strange backwards tiger seal. "Secret Ice Style: Crystal Ice Mirrors Jutsu."

Zane looked all around him as the mirrors formed, solidifying, and leaving him no way out. Tōshirō calmly walked into the mirror he was closest to, projecting images of himself throughout the dome.

"This is so cool…" He muttered to himself. "Let's see your furry cloak zap this. Wind Style: Wind Blade Jutsu!" He swung Hyōrinmaru forward and a thin blade of wind shot through the reflections, slicing through his lightning based cloak and shredding him to bits."

Somehow, the scrolls were still intact. They were probably reinforced with jutsu. Tōshirō picked his two heaven scrolls up and smirked. "I found them guys." Tōshirō passed out.

_

* * *

Woohoo! I did it again!_

_One thing you'll notice is that Shikamaru killed both of his opponents when he could have knocked them out. He is quite ruthless, wouldn't you agree? Make your guesses as to why. It isn't actually that complicated._

_People have been wondering about new Ice Jutsu, so I added some. Has Tōshirō truly mastered the Crystal Ice Mirrors? You'll see soon!_

_And I was going to include the Orochimaru fight in this one but I already reached the 6000 words I had put upon myself and so that'll happen next time._

_But wait! There was no Naruto in this chapter! Blasphemy!_

_Oh they will be there sometime. The Shinigami part in all of this starts very soon. But until then, we get a look at team 7 and the Orochimaru fight! The Dosu fight will probably happen in that chapter also. Then things will begin to diverge._

_Until chapter six, see ya! -OFH_


End file.
